Tay Road Bridge Hunter. The nickname “Steve” won an online poll to nickname the Bridge. The Tay Road Bridge was built to replace the former Tay ferry service, popularly known in Dundee as "the Fifie". A passenger and vehicle ferry service across the River Tay operated from Craigie Pier, Dundee, to Newport-on-Tay. Four vessels formerly operated the service, namely the "B. L. Nairn" and "Sir William High" (both Paddle Steamers built in 1929); the "Abercraig" and the "Scotscraig" (diesel powered, fitted with Voith Schneider propellors and built in the Caledon Shipyard in Dundee). The final ferry service was made on the day of
Tay Bridge disaster were now constructed by sinking brick-lined wrought-iron caissons onto the riverbed, and filling these with concrete. To reduce the weight these had to support, Bouch used open-lattice iron skeleton piers: each pier had multiple cast-iron columns taking the weight of the bridging girders. Wrought iron horizontal braces and diagonal tiebars linked the columns in each pier to provide rigidity and stability. The basic concept was well known, but for the Tay Bridge, the pier dimensions were constrained by the caisson. For the higher portion of the bridge, there were 13 girder spans. In order to accommodate thermal expansion, at only