Description

Holograph letter dated 2 October 1879 on folded large post quarto paper from Mr Wieland, Secretary of the Forth Bridge Railway Company, Edinburgh to Messrs Wm Arrol & Co, Dalmarnock Iron Works, Glasgow. The letter would appear to have been written by a clerk for Mr Wieland’s signature. Mr Wieland has added additional text under his signature (for transcript see Image 2).

This letter refers to works to be carried out by Messrs Wm Arrol & Co on Thomas Bouch’s suspension bridge across the Forth. It is dated some three months before the Tay Bridge disaster on 28 December 1879. It was this event that led to the cancellation of Bouch’s scheme for a suspension bridge across the Forth at Queensferry.