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Scotland's Forth Bridge waiting for World Heritage Status

Xinhua, May 23, 2015 Adjust font size:

The iconic Forth Bridge is a step closer to becoming Scotland's sixth World Heritage Site, the Scottish government said on Friday.

The Bridge is on the agenda of recommended for inscription by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organizations (UNESCO) World Heritage Committee to decide whether the World Heritage Status is to be awarded.

The papers for the committee's 39th session, to be held in Bonn in Germany from June 28 until July 8, were published following a recommendation from official UNESCO advisors at the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS).

Scottish Cabinet Secretary for Culture, Europe and External Affairs, Fiona Hyslop hailed the progress, saying: "To have the bridge inscribed as a World Heritage Site would be a tremendous accolade for the bridge itself, for the local communities it spans and for Scotland as a whole."

The bridge was nominated by the United Kingdom for inscription last year, which was a celebration of Scotland's incredible engineering pedigree and ingenuity, she noted, expecting UNESCO's final decision on the Forth Bridge bid in July.

Built over seven years and located to the west of Edinburgh, the Forth Bridge was opened March 4, 1890 as the first major structure of steel in Britain.

Scotland already has five World Heritage Sites, including St Kilda, a group of remote islands and sea stacks 100 miles (about 160 km) off the west coast of Scotland; the heart of Neolithic Orkney, one of the richest surviving Neolithic landscapes in Western Europe; the Antonine Wall, the most northerly frontier of the Roman Empire running right across central Scotland; the old and new towns of Edinburgh, one of the world's most beautiful cityscapes; and New Lanark, a restored 18th century cotton mill village situated in the narrow gorge of the River Clyde and renowned for the enlightened management of the social pioneer Robert Owen, the Scottish government said.

There are currently 28 world heritage sites in total across the United Kingdom, showed the list on the UNESCO website. Endit