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 Rail Bridge for that purpose. Thus, when the pieces of the viaduct had to be put together at the place of erection there was literally not a tool required, and neither chipping or filing to retard the progress of the work. Either, said the Chairman, the Belah viaduct had been over-engineered, or the Tay Bridge had been under engineered. Whilst Bouch was in the process of revising his design, the company which had been awarded the contract for the bridge's construction, Messrs De Bergue of Cardiff, went out of business. During June 1874, a replacement contract for the work was issued to