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Scotland's Forth Bridge inscribed as World Heritage site

Xinhua, July 5, 2015 Adjust font size:

The Forth Bridge in Scotland in northern Britain was officially inscribed as a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organizations (UNESCO) World Heritage site, it was announced on Sunday.

"This railway bridge spanning the estuary of the Forth River in Scotland is the world's longest multi-span cantilever bridge. It opened in 1890 and continues to carry passengers and freight," said the UNESCO press release on its official website.

"Its distinctive industrial aesthetic is the result of a forthright and unadorned display of its structural components. Innovative in style, materials and scale, the Forth Bridge is an important milestone in bridge design and construction during the period when railways came to dominate long-distance land travel," said the UNESCO press release.

The world-famous bridge is Scotland's sixth World Heritage site, joining Edinburgh Old and New Towns, one of the world's most beautiful cityscapes; the Heart of Neolithic Orkney, one of the richest surviving Neolithic landscapes in Western Europe; 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 Antonine Wall, the most northerly frontier of the Roman Empire running right across central Scotland, and St Kilda, a group of remote islands and sea stacks 100 miles (about 160 km) off the west coast of Scotland, according to the Scottish government.

The UNESCO website showed that the Frontiers of the Roman Empire is listed under both the British and Germany World Heritage sites, explaining that the previously inscribed "Hadrian's Wall" is part of the transnational property "Frontiers of the Roman Empire".

The cultural site Forth Bridge became Britain's 29th World Heritage site on the UNESCO World Heritage list on its website.

Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon congratulated on Forth Bridge's inscription as a World Heritage Site, terming it as "an honor, and true recognition of the Bridge's unique place in Scotland's history".

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.

The 125-year-old cantilever bridge spans 2.5 km over the Firth of Forth on the east coast of Scotland and comprises 53,000 tons of mild steel. Endit