The Tay Bridge Disaster, 1879: The Night the Bridge Fell

Each major claim carries one of three labels. established means supported by primary records, official bodies or several independent reliable sources. shared means the core fact is sound but sources disagree on details, dates or interpretation. traditional means widely repeated but not traceable to a primary or independent source.

The number of dead has long been uncertain. Ticket counts suggested about 75, and later research has produced lists of 59 named victims; some argue the true figure was lower. Engineers have also continued to debate the exact mechanism of collapse, with modern studies pointing to fatigue cracking in cast-iron lugs as well as wind.

The longest bridge in the world

established Before the bridge, travellers between Edinburgh and Dundee had to cross the Firths of Forth and Tay by ferry. The North British Railway commissioned the engineer Thomas Bouch to bridge the Tay. His bridge, nearly two miles long, was built of wrought-iron girders on slender cast-iron columns resting on brick and concrete piers. In the middle, the "high girders" carried the line through the girders themselves, high enough above the water for ships to pass. When it opened to passengers in 1878, it was the longest bridge in the world, and after Queen Victoria crossed in 1879, Bouch was knighted.

28 December 1879

established On the evening of Sunday 28 December 1879 a violent storm swept down the Firth of Tay, with winds estimated at around 80 mph. At about 7.15 pm the train from Edinburgh, a locomotive pulling five wooden carriages and a brake van, passed the signal cabin at the south end and moved onto the bridge. Witnesses on shore watched its lights, then saw a flash of sparks in the high girders. The central section of the bridge had fallen, and the train with it.

shared Nobody survived. The death toll was put at 75, based on tickets and missing persons, and that figure is on the memorials. Later research has named 59 victims, and only 46 bodies were ever recovered. The exact number will probably never be known.

The inquiry

established A court of inquiry under the wreck commissioner Henry Rothery reported in 1880. It found that the bridge had been "badly designed, badly constructed and badly maintained". Bouch had made no proper allowance for wind pressure on the structure; the cast-iron columns and their fastenings were defective, some cast with flaws and filled with a substance known as "Beaumont egg"; maintenance had been inadequate; and trains had regularly exceeded the speed limit across the high girders. Bouch was held principally to blame. He was ruined, and he died in October 1880.

shared Modern engineers have re-examined the collapse. Some studies argue that fatigue cracks in the cast-iron lugs that held the bracing, worsened by vibration from fast trains, played a major part alongside the wind. The inquiry's broad verdict, that the bridge was not fit for its purpose, still stands.

"The Diver" and the new bridge

established The locomotive was raised from the riverbed, repaired and returned to service. Railwaymen nicknamed it "The Diver", and it worked until 1908, crossing the new bridge many times. The second Tay Bridge, designed by William Henry Barlow and built by William Arrol, opened in 1887 beside the stumps of the old piers, which still stand in the water. The disaster also forced a rethink of the planned Forth Bridge, which Bouch had been due to design; the new design by Fowler and Baker was built to withstand far greater wind loads.

McGonagall's poem

established The disaster inspired many poems, but one has outlived them all. William McGonagall's "The Tay Bridge Disaster" (1880), beginning "Beautiful Railway Bridge of the Silv'ry Tay!", is celebrated as one of the worst poems in the English language, with its clumsy rhymes and anticlimaxes. It has kept the memory of the disaster alive, though not in the way its author intended.

Remembering the dead

established Memorials to the victims stand at both ends of the bridge, in Dundee and Wormit, unveiled in 2013. They list the names of those known to have died.

• The first Tay Bridge was the longest bridge in the world when it opened.
• Bouch was knighted months before the collapse.
• Nobody on the train survived.
• The locomotive was recovered and ran for nearly thirty more years, nicknamed "The Diver".
• The stumps of the original bridge piers still stand beside the current bridge.
• McGonagall's poem about the disaster is often called the worst in English.

• Disputed: How many people died. The figure of 75, based on tickets and missing persons, is on the memorials, but only 59 victims have been named and 46 bodies recovered. The exact number will probably never be known.
• Myth: The storm alone brought the bridge down. The inquiry found it "badly designed, badly constructed and badly maintained", with no proper allowance for wind pressure.
• Disputed: The exact mechanism of the collapse. Some modern studies point to fatigue cracks in the cast-iron lugs, worsened by vibration from fast trains, alongside the wind. The inquiry's broad verdict that the bridge was unfit for its purpose still stands.