The Tay Bridge Rail Disaster, 1879

A famous disaster caused by bad design and other factors

This is the story of the Tay Bridge disaster in December 1879 when a combination of factors, including extreme weather, caused part of the bridge to collapse just as a train was passing across it. There were no survivors.

The bridge to Dundee

Few, if any, rail accidents have lived as long in the collective memory as that of the Tay Bridge disaster of 28th December 1879. In part this is due to the absurd poem written soon after the event by Dundee poet William McGonagall, but that is by no means the whole story. The drama of the disaster, coupled with the fact that there were no survivors, was bound to make this a story that would grab the public’s attention and not let go, even down to the present day.

The railway line from Edinburgh to Aberdeen had two major problems during its construction, namely the Firths of Forth and Tay that interrupted the journey. Before these wide estuaries were bridged it was necessary for train passengers to disembark and take a boat journey across the water, which was clearly time-consuming and often uncomfortable. There was therefore a pressing need to build bridges.

The Tay Bridge was the first to be built, the designer being Thomas Bouch (1822–80). He had…