THE shortlist of potential names for the new Forth bridge has been revealed by a panel of judges.
Members of the public are now being invited to vote for their favourite from the list: Caledonia Bridge, Firth of Forth Crossing, Queensferry Crossing, Saltire Crossing and St Margaret's Crossing.
Transport Scotland said it received more than 7600 name suggestions for the replacement crossing, which the judges whittled down to the remaining five.
Work on the new Forth bridge started last year and is said to be on schedule to be completed by 2016.
Transport Minister Keith Brown said: "The Forth replacement crossing is the biggest infrastructure project in Scotland for a generation.
"This hugely significant work is vital for the future of the nation's economy and the naming process has clearly captured the imagination of the public across all walks of life.
"The Forth Bridge was constructed in the 19th century, the Forth Road Bridge in the 20th century and now we are building a new crossing for the 21st century.
"I would encourage the public to continue to play their part and make the eventual winner a popular and fair choice by getting involved in the final vote.
"It is important this process is as inclusive and representative as possible. This innovative naming procedure has recently attracted international interest and praise for engaging so many people, and other countries are keen to learn from our example."
Hamira Khan, chief executive of the Scottish Youth Parliament and a member of the Bridge Naming Advisory Panel, said: "So many wonderful and clever names were submitted, and a few funny ones were thrown in too. Drawing up the shortlist was no easy task but I am confident the final name chosen will truly reflect the wishes of the people of Scotland."
Panel member Alan Simpson, former chairman of the Institution of Civil Engineers Scotland, said: "This new bridge is a really exciting project that so clearly demonstrates the significance of civil engineering to Scotland and will, with its two neighbours, show off the development of bridge technology over a period of 125 years. I found it extremely difficult to reduce the total of over 7000 suggestions to just five for the final vote.
"However, I was delighted at the number of nominations, which indicates how the construction of this wonderful new bridge has captured the imagination of people throughout the country."
People can place their vote by visiting www.namethebridge.co.uk or by texting "BRIDGE" followed by the letter of their preferred option: A for Caledonia Bridge, B for Firth of Forth Crossing, C for Queensferry Crossing, D for Saltire Crossing or E for St Margaret's Crossing).
The ballot will close at midnight on June 7 and the winner will be announced later that month.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article