The final stage on our ‘Epic’ 08 road trip. After climbing the Newport Lift Bridge our adrenaline was through the roof. We certainly were not going to be getting any sleep any time soon so we headed towards the Transporter Bridge.

I’ve always wanted to climb a bridge. Mainly for the views but also to take in the sheer construction wow factor that comes with it. This trip therefore started with the aim to climb bridges. Two in fact. The Newport Lifting Bridge and the Transporter Bridge located in Middlesbrough.

The first site on the Birmingham leg of our journey. While it wasn’t the biggest of sizes it made up for that with detail and construction. We were looking at the old Chance Glassworks, but more importantly a smaller section many would pass up and ignore. Housed under a burnt out shell of a building is a series of passage ways and arched tunnels which used to contain some of the old kilns.

Described as “The one internationally recognised Scottish landmark”.

At 2.5 km in length, with three 340 ft cantilever structures, several mammoth spans and foundations constructed under compressed air the Forth bridge is not to be taken lightly. At its peak, approximately 4,600 workers were employed in its construction and by the time the Prince of Wales hammered the final rivet in on the 4th march 1890 almost 100 workers had died and over 500 had been injured.

Another one of those explorer defiant ue sites. Every single door was locked inside and out, every window blocked and screwed shut, plus several barbed bendy fences. Combine that with the fact its on a live site and has a jumpy security guard who will call the police at the slightest incident and you have a real pain in the arse.

The final explore of what was an exhausting weekend. After a brilliant trip this was the perfect way to finish. The building currently stands at 187 meters high, with the crane towering over the building, I am unsure at to the total height probably around 670-700ft but either way its the biggest structure I would have climbed.