The Forth Road Bridge - in LEGO bricks!
This morning, I've been based in the National Museum of Scotland, unveiling this - the Forth Road Bridge:
We've been working on this one for a while! To celebrate the bridge's 50th birthday there are a host of activities going on as part of the Forth Bridges Festival - this being just a little part of it.
The bridge is possibly one of the most technical models that I've ever created. Not least because it has to look right - it will be 'inspected' by the very people that built the bridge 50 years ago as well as the thousands of visitors to the museum! The bridge deck is also an extremely complex structure and very delicate until finished. That alone took a full day to roughly mockup in ldraw.
To comply with safety requirements, this model is not all LEGO either. Whilst it probably would hold up without it, there is around 200Kg of steel encased in the structure. Not only did we have to hide the steelwork completely - but we also had to ensure that the model could be disassembled and moved safely too.
To help to understand the structure, I've been luck enough to work with the bridge staff to not only work from the original drawings (in Imperial!) but also take a close look at the structure itself. You need a good head for heights in my job!
The final touches are going to be added today and then the bridge will remain on public display in the National Museum of Scotland, here in Edinburgh, for the next three weeks. You can't miss it, it's right in the entrance!
