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Celebrating World Heritage Day and the Forth Bridge

04 April

Explorers

We are so lucky to have the Forth Bridge World Heritage site right here in Fife! Find out more about the iconic bridge and it's prestigious status.  

1 .

Elite group

There are only 1154 World Heritage Sites worldwide and 1737 waiting for the opportunity to be considered

2 .

One of few

There are 6 World Heritage Sites in Scotland, the Forth Bridge is the most recent to receive World Heritage status

3 .

Meeting criteria

The Forth Bridge meets two World Heritage status criteria; being a masterpiece of creative genius and an outstanding example of a type of building, architectural or technological ensemble which illustrates a significant stage in human history

4 .

Stretching across

The bridge is 1.5 miles long and is the second longest span cantilever bridge in the world!

5 .

Construction

53,000 tonnes of steel and 6.5 million rivets were used to construct the Forth Bridge

6 .

Iconic red

The bridge requires requiring 240,000 litres of paint to keep its iconic red colour

7 .

Marking an anniversary

The Forth Bridge gained World Heritage status on the 125th anniversary of it opening

To be a World Heritage Site you need to prove you have “Outstanding Universal Value” to all of humanity and meet some very specific criteria as well as be approved by a UNESCO committee. World Heritage status is so prestigious, only 1154 sites worldwide have been awarded the designation including the Pyramids of Giza, The Great Wall of China and Notre Dame. Among these famous and incredible sites is our very own Forth Bridge, which was designated a World Heritage Site in 2015! 

Make a day of it and read more about activities around the bridge here.

Did you know that Scotland is one of the first countries in the world to have a UNESCO trail, linking all our 13 place-based UNESCO designations, including World Heritage Sites, Biospheres, Global Geoparks and Creative Cities. Find out more here!

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