Tay Bridge disaster Scottish author A. J. Cronin, includes a scene involving the Tay Bridge disaster, and the 1942 filmed version of the book dramatically recreates the bridge's catastrophic collapse. The bridge collapse also figures prominently in Barbara Vine's 2002 novel "The Blood Doctor". 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
Tay Bridge disaster had a good view of most of the bridge from his house in Newport-on-Tay but other buildings blocked his view of the southern high girders. He had seen the train move onto the bridge; then in the northern high girders, before the train could have reached them, he saw "two columns of spray illuminated with the light, first one flash and then another" and could no longer see the lights on the bridge – the only inference he could draw was that the lit "columns" of spray – slanting from north to south at about 75 degrees – were areas