"Operations were commenced in January, 1883, so the works have now been some twenty months in progress, and about 170,000£. have been expended in plant and temporary works and 200,000£. in the permanent works of the bridge. At an area of about 20 s of ground have been laid out in shops and yards for the manufacture of the 1700 span steel girders and for other purposes. These shops are in direct communication with the North British Railway, and are connected by an incline and with a temporary timber viaduct 2200 ft. in length and 50 ft. in width, extending from the South Queensferry shore to the first of the groups of four cylindrical iron caissons which constitute the lower portions of the main piers of the bridge. At stores and offices have been built, and as this in an exposed island in the middle of the Forth the staging for the piecework is of iron pinned to the rock. Similarly at , on the Fife side of the Forth, stores, offices, and iron staging have been erected."