The Forth Bridge, from the Hawes Pier

Evelyn Carey was Assistant Engineer, and the principal photographer documenting the construction of the Forth Rail Bridge. The bridge, of a highly original design, was built between 1883 and 1890 and has been considered an extraordinary feat of engineering ever since. Its construction was documented in photographs by Carey and in text by his fellow engineer, Wilhelm Westofen. Sara Stevenson writes "The proposal, the progress and the construction are not merely astonishing in themselves but are seen to be astonishing in Evelyn Carey's photographs. The tension of the bridge, its visually implausible construction, become by turns startling, unwise and impracticable,... Evelyn Carey's photographs of the Forth Bridge present an engaging metaphor of connection - crossing the great estuary to link North and South, linking the twentieth century to the nineteenth, meshing two art forms."