Experts fear a cover-up over the death toll

Researchers said people had already responded to their appeal for help from descendants of those killed.

For years the total was put at 57, but members of the local Queensferry History Group now believe the toll is closer to 80.

The youngest person to die during the construction of the bridge was only 13.

Working conditions were generally dangerous, because nothing like today's safety regulations were in force.

Some victims' descendants have offered information to the history group after it made a plea for help last month.

Local workers

The group has also received inquiries from people seeking the updated list of names of the dead, who ranged from "rivet catchers" to painters and mostly came from Britain or Ireland.

Some were recruited from communities close to both ends of the world-famous Victorian bridge linking South Queensferry and Fife.

German engineer Wilhelm Westhofen kept a tally of those who died, but the historians believe there has been a cover-up.

The one-and-a-half mile bridge is made up of 55,000 tons of steel, 18,000 cubic metres of granite and eight million rivets. Construction began in 1883 and at its peak 4,600 men worked on the link.