The Tay Bridge - Dundee, Scotland
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creg-ny-baa
N 56° 27.108 W 002° 59.169
30V E 500853 N 6256364
Historic information on the Tay Bridge, the famous railway bridge that crosses the Firth of Tay from the Scottish city of Dundee.
Waymark Code: WM1A8MY
Location: Northern Scotland, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 07/08/2024
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The historical information sign can be found on Riverside Walk, a walking and cycling path that runs adjacent to the Firth of Tay in the Scottish city of Dundee. It lies to the east of the railway bridge over the Tay and gives information on its history, including the disaster that occurred in December 1879 shortly after the first bridge was opened. The text reads as follows:
'During the 1840s the nation's rail network expanded greatly. The North British Railway Company already had rail links between Carlisle, Edinburgh, Perth and Dundee. This gave them control over the whole east coast route. However two major obstacles stood in the way of development of the East Coast Line: The Firth of Forth and the Firth of Tay both needed to be bridged. Thomas Bouch, born in 1822 worked for the North British Railway and was tasked with designing the Tay Rail Bridge.
Initially he proposed a "floating railway" but later settled on an iron bridge. A survey on the sea bed stated that the river bed was solid rock below a layer of sand - this was later discovered to be wrong but Bouch based his bridge design on that survey's findings.
The bridge was completed in 1877, having taken six years to build. With its two mile span it was the longest bridge ever built across water at the time. It had taken 600 workers, two million rivets and over 7,200 tons of iron. 20 workmen lost their lives on the bridge and the final cost was over £300,000. The 'Lochee' was the first train to cross the bridge on 26 September 1877 and in 1879 Thomas Bouch was knighted at Windsor Castle.
Disaster struck on Sunday 28 December 1879 when high winds and insufficient bracing caused the central section of the bridge to collapse as a train crossed. All aboard were lost. The engine was later recovered and surprisingly suffered only minor damage, it was placed back in service and continued to work for a further 30 years.
An inquiry later found that the bridge had been badly designed, constructed and maintained. Sir Thomas Bouch died a year later aged 58.
A new Tay Rail Bridge was built 8 years later alongside the piers of its ill-fated predecessor and remains in view today.'