The railway bridge, which connects Edinburgh with Fife in a span more than a mile and a half long, will be evaluated by Unesco over an 18-month period, with a decision due in 2015.
The reason for the nomination of the Forth Bridge is because it was the first major British construction to be made of steel. Perhaps people in the future will be amazed at the earliest example of this kind. I picture citizens flying around in private crafts, without the need for gravity-fixed modes of transport. In the meantime, tourists will visit the area, thereby helping the economy.
If successful, the bridge would join the likes of the Taj Mahal, the Great Wall of China, and the Grand Canyon on the existing list of UNESCO sites.
The World Heritage List includes 981 properties forming part of the cultural and natural heritage which the Committee considers to have outstanding universal value.
1. St. Kilda - a small, out-lying archipelago of Hebridean islands
2. Edinburgh Old and New Towns
3. The Heart of Neolithic Orkney, which includes Maeshowe, the Ring of Brodgar, Skara Brae, the Standing Stones of Stenness and other nearby sites
4. New Lanark - a restored 18th Century industrial cotton mill village in South Lanarkshire
5. The Antonine Wall - a stone and turf fortification built by the Romans across what is now the Central Belt of Scotland
The way ancient societies lived fascinates me. Television programs about Scara Brae, for example, explore the way ancient people lived. They turn out to be remarkably similar to modern man—living in a central (room built under the earth), which contained the fire and oven, shelves, and bed (rooms) included in the walls. Maybe they sat around their hearth, eating porridge the way I do.
Among other UK sites are: Stonehenge, the Jurassic Coast, the Antonine Wall, and the more recent Tower of London.
Some of the USA World Heritage sites consist of natural beauty—the Everglades, Yosemite & Yellowstone National Parks.
I'm glad UNESCO is dedicated to preserving nearly 1,000 of the world's precious sites for the future.