The
River Tay is the longest
river in
Scotland, running east into the
North Sea near the
port of
Dundee. The main line
railway runs up the east coast of Scotland from
Edinburgh and through
Fife, then must cross the
Tay to reach
Dundee and
Aberdeen. In February
1878, a bridge across the Tay was completed, designed by Thomas Bouch, and opened on May 31 the same year. It was 88 feet (27 metres) above the water and nearly 2 miles long: at the time the
longest bridge in the world.
On December 28, 1879 the bridge was buffeted by a force 10-11 gale. At around 7.15 pm, the central spans of the bridge collapsed into the river. A train was crossing at the time, with 75 people in its 6 carriages. They all perished. A Court of Inquiry found that the bridge was woefully under-designed for the weather in the Firth of Tay, but was unable to decide if Sir Thomas Bouch was to blame.
As a final cruel twist, the tragedy was immortalised by William McGonagall, often called the worst poet of all time, in his poem "The Tay Bridge Disaster"; see under William McGonagall.
The collapse of the bridge did, however have some good effects, leading to massive overcompensation in the enormously solid design of the steel cantilevered Forth Bridge. A new lower bridge was built across the Tay a few years later, using some of the iron from the old bridge, and you will still cross it today if you travel into Dundee by rail from Edinburgh and South-East Scotland.
Reference: T J Martin, "The Tay Bridge Disaster". http://www.tts1.demon.co.uk/tay.html, viewed 2001-11-06.