Tay Bridge disaster Tay Bridge disaster During a violent storm on Sunday 28 December 1879, the first Tay Rail Bridge collapsed as a train from Wormit to Dundee passed over it, killing all aboard. The bridge—designed by Sir Thomas Bouch—used lattice girders supported by iron piers, with cast iron columns and wrought iron cross-bracing. The piers were narrower and their cross-bracing was less extensive and robust than on previous similar designs by Bouch. Bouch had sought expert advice on wind loading when designing a proposed rail bridge over the Firth of Forth; as a result of that advice he had made no explicit
River Tay William McGonagall's poems "The Tay Bridge Disaster" and "Railway Bridge of the Silvery Tay" and the German poet Theodor Fontane has mentioned the Tay in his poem "Die Brück' am Tay". Both poems deal will the Tay bridge disaster of 1879 seeing the bridge's construction as a case of human hubris and expressing an uneasiness towards the fast technological development of mankind. It is mentioned in the Steeleye Span song "The Royal Forester". Many Rolls-Royce civil aero-engines are named after British rivers, one of which is the Rolls-Royce Tay. River Tay The River Tay () is the longest river in