TAY RAIL BRIDGE CENTENARY - SOME NOTES ON ITS CONSTRUCTION 1882-87. PROCEEDINGS OF THE INSTITUTION OF CIVIL ENGINEERS

This paper describes the history, design and construction of the tay railway bridge. The design and construction of the present bridge are so inextricably bound up with the failure of its predecessor in the disaster of 1879 that any description of it must begin with the story of the earlier first effort to bridge the tay. Although everyone has heard of the disaster, perhaps few know the facts of an event which seems to have gripped public imagination as no other has done since. The paper begins with a description of the design and construction of the first tay bridge, which was a few feet shorter than two miles long, by far the longest bridge in the world at that time. The events leading to its fall in a gale on 28 December 1879 are outlined, together with the findings of the public inquiry, and the new conditions set out for the construction of the present bridge. The ingenious construction methods for the new bridge, employed by the contractor, William arrol of Glasgow, are described. The construction took five years from 1882-87, and the bridge celebrated the centenary of its opening on 20 June 1987.(a)