Tay Road Bridge in the British Pathe web archive. For four days, many took advantage of the toll-free period to cross the bridge. Viewing platforms were once a feature of the Bridge, however they were removed in the 1990s. In 2002, a Tay FM competition to find a slogan for the bridge was abandoned after the slogan with the most votes - “It’s all downhill to Dundee” (reflecting the bridge’s downward angle) was deemed unsuitable. In September 2017, after a successful campaign by Wave 102 to give the bridge a nickname, the bridge was officially nicknamed “Steve” by Chris Duke and Councillor Stewart
Tay Rail Bridge opened nineteen months earlier and having been passed as safe by the Board of Trade, has a long term impact on wider society. According to some commenters, it is still regarded as having been the most notorious bridge disaster to have ever occurred in the British Isles. Within 10 days of the disaster, German poet Theodor Fontane wrote his famous poem . The disaster was commemorated in "The Tay Bridge Disaster", one of the best-known verse efforts of William McGonagall. In the present day, the stumps of the original bridge piers are still visible above the surface of the Tay