The
Romans reportedly made a bridge of around 900 boats, probably at South Queensferry. In the 10th century, the river was considered the boundary of
"Scotia" and was sometimes called "The Scots Water". The inner firth, located between the
Kincardine and Forth bridges, has lost about half of its former intertidal area as a result of land reclamation, partly for agriculture, but mainly for industry and the large ash lagoons built to deposit spoil from the coal-fired
Longannet Power Station near
Kincardine. Historic villages line the Fife shoreline;
Limekilns,
Charlestown and
Culross, established in the 6th century, where
Saint Kentigern was born. Construction of the
Forth Bridge, a railway bridge, began in 1882 and was opened on 4 March 1890 carrying the
Edinburgh–Aberdeen line. The youngest person to swim across the Firth of Forth was 13-year-old Joseph Feeney, who accomplished the feat in 1933. In October 1936, the
Kincardine Bridge opened. On 4 September 1964, the
Forth Road Bridge opened. From 1964 to 1982, a tunnel existed under the Firth of Forth, dug by coal miners to link the Kinneil colliery on the south side of the Forth with the Valleyfield colliery on the north side. This is shown in the 1968 educational film
Forth – Powerhouse for Industry. The shafts leading into the tunnel were filled and capped with concrete when the tunnel was closed, and it is believed to have flooded with water or collapsed in places. In January 1987, the first
Loony Dook event took place. During this event, individuals dive or wade into the Forth on New Years Day. , Photo taken before construction began on the
Queensferry Crossing. On 27 February 2001, a
Short 360 owned by the Scottish airline
Loganair operating as
Flight 670A ditched into the Firth of Forth after both of the plane's engines torque went to zero. After a mayday call was initiated, the plane crashed into the water, all happening within the flight's phase of climbing to standard altitude. The only two occupants aboard, the captain and first officer, died in the accident. The crash was due to a lack of an established procedure for the flight crew to add engine air intake covers in adverse, windy, weather conditions. In July 2007, a
hovercraft passenger service completed a two-week trial between Portobello,
Edinburgh and Kirkcaldy, Fife. The trial of the service (marketed as "Forthfast") was hailed as a major operational success, with an average passenger load of 85 per cent. It was estimated the service would decrease congestion for commuters on the Forth road and rail bridges by carrying about 870,000 passengers each year. Despite its initial success, the project was cancelled in December 2011. In 2008, a controversial bid to allow oil transfer between ships in the firth was refused by
Forth Ports. SPT Marine Services had asked permission to transfer 7.8 million tonnes of crude oil per year between tankers, but the proposals were met with determined opposition from conservation groups. In November 2008, construction of the
Clackmannanshire Bridge was completed and it opened to traffic. In 2011, construction of the
Queensferry Crossing began and the bridge was formally opened on 4 September 2017. , the
Forth Road Bridge and the
Forth Bridge from the
South Queensferry side ==Ecology==