THERE were kilts and sensible walking shoes, charity T-shirts and hair that had been dyed especially for the event.

A couple of parrots, Toy Story characters, lots of selfie sticks, and the First Minister.

Overhead the sun split the sky, for a spell on Saturday, at least, and in its spotlight shone the star of the show, the sleek £1.35 billion Queensferry Crossing, sparkling like a pretty new penny.

The river below the UK’s tallest bridge was flat and calm, but on her deck came wave after wave of walkers. Fifty thousand of them, from babes in buggies who couldn’t begin to understand what the fuss might be about, to watery-eyed gents in their 80s and 90s who remembered days when crossing the Forth meant a laborious – and sometimes stomach churning – process of ferries and bikes.

They had all come together for two unique days, the lucky ones picked from 250,000 hopefuls to become the first, and only, people to conquer the vehicle-only 1.7miles of the new Queensferry Crossing on foot.

Most had watched the new crossing take shape before their eyes; gradually growing from grubby earthworks and convoys of trucks to the point in August last year when north joined south and the link was made.

Others, it turned out, had travelled from as far afield as Dorset just to have the chance to say “I was there”.

The barriers came down to vehicles for the weekend pedestrian crossings – billed as a “once in a lifetime experience”.

The crossing remains closed until September 7, by which time the Queen will have formally opened it today, 53 years to the day after she opened its sister bridge, the Forth Road Bridge. Tomorrow, up to 10,000 local school children and community groups from both sides of the Forth will have the chance to walk the route, before it becomes a vehicle-only route.

It meant that for just a couple of days the new crossing – the longest triple tower cable-stayed bridge in the world – belonged to everyone.

While First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and Transport Minister Humza Yousaf led walkers from the South Queensferry side, thousands set off from the north.

Among the first to make the crossing was 16-year-old Morgan Lewis-Wilson, wrapped in a saltire, having jogged the final stretch with his Welsh-born mother Lynne, 49, a Welsh flag draped over her shoulders. Somewhere in the crowd behind, her husband James, 54, accompanied his dad Hamish, 84, dressed in dazzling yellow shorts for the occasion.

“We thought it would be special, three generations walking across this new bridge,” she said. “We normally run at our local park run, so this was a nice change.”

Morgan added: “It was one of the most brilliant experiences of my life, seeing the view of the other two bridges was amazing.”

Around them grandparents joined toddlers, mothers and daughters dressed up as pirates, couples held hands and thousands took selfies. Most carried cameras and phones, hoping to snap a unique view of the gently waving cables overhead, or catch a glimpse of the river that few others will ever have.

For Christine Vincenti, 52, from Edinburgh, the walk was particularly poignant. “My great grandmother, Christina Sandercombe, was one of the first women to unofficially walk over the railway bridge.

“She used to run a boarding house in South Queensferry, and would walk up to the bridge while it was being built to deliver the men’s packed lunches.

“She walked the length of it before it opened. It must have been a hard walk just to get there it, and probably quite dangerous. But they didn’t worry about the danger back then, they just did it. So I’m here to follow in her footsteps.”

The crossing was less painful than her own first crossing of the Forth Road Bridge in the Sixties. “My mum wanted our first crossing to be really memorable,” she said. “I had a loose tooth, so she decided it should come out while we were on the bridge. She leaned over and said ‘right, let’s get that tooth’ and yanked it out.”

For 86-year-old Fred Black from Broughty Ferry, the walk brought back memories of his youth, cycling from his home to Edinburgh and catching the ferry that operated before the road bridge was built. “There was the Queensferry ferry, and one from Burntisland to Newhaven. It got a bit choppy now and again. But this is an experience, right enough,” he said.

Grandparents joined toddlers, as the generations joined together to celebrate the bridge, some in fancy dress, seizing the chance to raise awareness and funds for charities.

Despite being in a wheelchair and just weeks after having his leg amputated, James Ogilvie, 63, dressed in a parrot suit with son Craig, 38, to draw attention to The Parrot Trust, which rescues birds and rehomes them.

“My dad, Jock, worked on the road bridge, for an East Lothian company that used to deliver the steel,” he recalled.

“One day he was unloading the lorry, when a massive girder dropped right on to his toe and sliced it off.”

Cilla Ferguson, 66, and husband Graham, 65, dressed as Toy Story’s Woody and Jessie to raise awareness of brittle bone disease which affects their nine-year-old grand-daughter Clare Murphy. “We wish she could have been with us,” said Mrs Ferguson. “It’s hell watching her going through it. We wanted to do this for her, and it’s been awesome.”

On the other side of the bridge, Isaac Wilson, 59, and grandchildren Hayley, 11, and Lewis, 12, from Larbert, were on their way to raising £1,275 to help a local boy who has autism.

“Everyone has been really jealous of us for getting a chance to do the walk,” said Mr Wilson, who had hats and T.shirts printed especially for the day.

“There’s nothing else in the world like this view.”