CHECK POINTS

摘要

Perhaps it is some sort of initiation - if you can stomach the D-line, you'll be fine walking on the rest of the Forth Road Bridge's (FRB's) below-deck circuitry. "It's safe," grins Amey senior civil engineer Graeme Shepherd as he walks swiftly along the pulsating walkway on gridline D. "Don't worry, the rust is only superficial." His words reassure me less and less as the metal grill depresses with every step. The cold wind howls around me and heavy swells lap against the pier base below with hypnotising motion. Some 65m above the surface of the Firth of Forth, it only takes a distant floating gull or chugging vessel to distract me enough to question why everything below me should be so small, turning my knees to jelly. And then the occasional bus thunders over - more alarming than if traffic were constantly crossing the bridge.