Tay Rail Bridge
Encyclopedia
The Tay Bridge is a railway bridge
approximately two and a quarter miles (three and a half kilometres) long that spans the Firth of Tay
in Scotland, between the city of Dundee
and the suburb of Wormit
in Fife
.
As with the Forth Bridge
, the Tay Bridge has also been called the Tay Rail Bridge since the construction of a road bridge over the firth, the Tay Road Bridge
. The rail bridge replaced an early train ferry
.
"Tay Bridge" was also the codename for the funeral plans for Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother.
Thomas Bouch
, who received a knighthood following the bridge's completion. It was a lattice-grid design, combining cast
and wrought iron
. The design was well known, having been used first by Kennard in the Crumlin Viaduct in South Wales in 1858, following the innovative use of cast iron in The Crystal Palace
. However, the Crystal Palace was not as heavily loaded as a railway bridge. A previous cast iron design, the Dee bridge
which collapsed in 1847, failed due to poor use of cast-iron girders. Later, Gustave Eiffel
used a similar design to create several large viaducts in the Massif Central
(1867).
Proposals for constructing a bridge across the River Tay date back to at least 1854. The North British Railway (Tay Bridge) Act received the Royal Assent on 15 July 1870 and the foundation stone was laid on 22 July 1871. As the bridge extended out into the river, it shortly became clear that the original survey of the estuary had not been competent. The bedrock, at a shallow depth near the banks, was found to descend deeper and deeper, until it was too deep to act as a foundation for the bridge piers. Bouch had to redesign the piers, and to set them very deep in the estuary bed to compensate for having no support underneath. He also reduced the number of piers by making the spans of the superstructure girders longer than he had originally planned.
The first engine crossed the bridge on 22 September 1877, and upon its completion in early 1878 the Tay Bridge was the longest in the world. The bridge was opened on 1 June 1878.
While visiting the city, Ulysses S. Grant
commented that it was "a big bridge for a small city".
, is still the most famous bridge disaster of the British Isles. The disaster was commemorated in "The Tay Bridge Disaster
", one of the best-known verse efforts of William McGonagall. German poet Theodor Fontane
within 10 days of the disaster wrote his famous poem Die Brück’ am Tay.
and built by William Arrol & Co.
18 metres (59.1 ft) upstream of, and parallel to, the original bridge. The bridge proposal was formally incorporated in July 1881 and the foundation stone laid on 6 July 1883. Construction involved 25000 metric tons (27,557.8 ST) of iron and steel, 70000 metric tons (77,161.8 ST) of concrete, ten million bricks (weighing 37500 metric tons (41,336.7 ST)) and three million rivets. Fourteen men lost their lives during its construction, most by drowning.
The stumps of the original bridge piers are still visible above the surface of the Tay even at high tide.
The second bridge opened on 13 July 1887 and remains in use. In 2003, a £20.85 million strengthening and refurbishment project (£ as of ), on the bridge won the British Construction Industry Civil Engineering Award
, in consideration of the staggering scale and logistics involved. More than 1000 metric tons (1,102.3 ST) of bird droppings were scraped off the ironwork lattice of the bridge using hand tools, and bagged into 25 kilograms (55.1 lb) sacks. Hundreds of thousands of rivets were removed and replaced, all work being done in very exposed conditions high over a firth
with fast-running tides.
Bridge
A bridge is a structure built to span physical obstacles such as a body of water, valley, or road, for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle...
approximately two and a quarter miles (three and a half kilometres) long that spans the Firth of Tay
Firth of Tay
The Firth of Tay is a firth in Scotland between the council areas of Fife, Perth and Kinross, the City of Dundee and Angus, into which Scotland's largest river in terms of flow, the River Tay, empties....
in Scotland, between the city of Dundee
Dundee
Dundee is the fourth-largest city in Scotland and the 39th most populous settlement in the United Kingdom. It lies within the eastern central Lowlands on the north bank of the Firth of Tay, which feeds into the North Sea...
and the suburb of Wormit
Wormit
Wormit is a small town located on the banks of the Firth of Tay in north east Fife, Scotland. It is most famous for its location at the southern end of the Tay Rail Bridge. Its railway station was on a closed branch line which left the main line railway immediately at the south end of the Bridge...
in Fife
Fife
Fife is a council area and former county of Scotland. It is situated between the Firth of Tay and the Firth of Forth, with inland boundaries to Perth and Kinross and Clackmannanshire...
.
As with the Forth Bridge
Forth Bridge (railway)
The Forth Bridge is a cantilever railway bridge over the Firth of Forth in the east of Scotland, to the east of the Forth Road Bridge, and 14 kilometres west of central Edinburgh. It was opened on 4 March 1890, and spans a total length of...
, the Tay Bridge has also been called the Tay Rail Bridge since the construction of a road bridge over the firth, the Tay Road Bridge
Tay Road Bridge
The Tay Road Bridge is a bridge across the Firth of Tay from Newport-on-Tay in Fife to Dundee in Scotland. At around , it is one of the longest road bridges in Europe, and slopes gradually downward towards Dundee...
. The rail bridge replaced an early train ferry
Train ferry
A train ferry is a ship designed to carry railway vehicles. Typically, one level of the ship is fitted with railway tracks, and the vessel has a door at the front and/or rear to give access to the wharves. In the United States, train ferries are sometimes referred to as "car ferries", as...
.
"Tay Bridge" was also the codename for the funeral plans for Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother.
The first Tay Bridge
The original Tay Bridge was designed by noted railway engineerEngineer
An engineer is a professional practitioner of engineering, concerned with applying scientific knowledge, mathematics and ingenuity to develop solutions for technical problems. Engineers design materials, structures, machines and systems while considering the limitations imposed by practicality,...
Thomas Bouch
Thomas Bouch
Sir Thomas Bouch was a British railway engineer in Victorian Britain.He was born in Thursby, near Carlisle, Cumberland, England and lived in Edinburgh. He helped develop the caisson and the roll-on/roll-off train ferry. He worked initially for the North British Railway and helped design parts of...
, who received a knighthood following the bridge's completion. It was a lattice-grid design, combining cast
Cast iron
Cast iron is derived from pig iron, and while it usually refers to gray iron, it also identifies a large group of ferrous alloys which solidify with a eutectic. The color of a fractured surface can be used to identify an alloy. White cast iron is named after its white surface when fractured, due...
and wrought iron
Wrought iron
thumb|The [[Eiffel tower]] is constructed from [[puddle iron]], a form of wrought ironWrought iron is an iron alloy with a very low carbon...
. The design was well known, having been used first by Kennard in the Crumlin Viaduct in South Wales in 1858, following the innovative use of cast iron in The Crystal Palace
The Crystal Palace
The Crystal Palace was a cast-iron and glass building originally erected in Hyde Park, London, England, to house the Great Exhibition of 1851. More than 14,000 exhibitors from around the world gathered in the Palace's of exhibition space to display examples of the latest technology developed in...
. However, the Crystal Palace was not as heavily loaded as a railway bridge. A previous cast iron design, the Dee bridge
Dee bridge disaster
The Dee bridge disaster was a rail accident that occurred on 24 May 1847 in Chester with five fatalities.A new bridge across the River Dee was needed for the Chester and Holyhead Railway, a project planned in the 1840s for the expanding British railway system. It was built using cast iron girders,...
which collapsed in 1847, failed due to poor use of cast-iron girders. Later, Gustave Eiffel
Gustave Eiffel
Alexandre Gustave Eiffel was a French structural engineer from the École Centrale Paris, an architect, an entrepreneur and a specialist of metallic structures...
used a similar design to create several large viaducts in the Massif Central
Massif Central
The Massif Central is an elevated region in south-central France, consisting of mountains and plateaux....
(1867).
Proposals for constructing a bridge across the River Tay date back to at least 1854. The North British Railway (Tay Bridge) Act received the Royal Assent on 15 July 1870 and the foundation stone was laid on 22 July 1871. As the bridge extended out into the river, it shortly became clear that the original survey of the estuary had not been competent. The bedrock, at a shallow depth near the banks, was found to descend deeper and deeper, until it was too deep to act as a foundation for the bridge piers. Bouch had to redesign the piers, and to set them very deep in the estuary bed to compensate for having no support underneath. He also reduced the number of piers by making the spans of the superstructure girders longer than he had originally planned.
The first engine crossed the bridge on 22 September 1877, and upon its completion in early 1878 the Tay Bridge was the longest in the world. The bridge was opened on 1 June 1878.
While visiting the city, Ulysses S. Grant
Ulysses S. Grant
Ulysses S. Grant was the 18th President of the United States as well as military commander during the Civil War and post-war Reconstruction periods. Under Grant's command, the Union Army defeated the Confederate military and ended the Confederate States of America...
commented that it was "a big bridge for a small city".
The Tay Bridge Disaster
On the night of 28 December 1879 at 7.15pm, the first bridge collapsed after its central spans gave way during high winter gales. A train with six carriages carrying seventy-five passengers and crew, crossing at the time of the collapse, plunged into the icy waters of the Tay. All seventy-five were lost, including Sir Thomas's son-in-law. The disaster stunned the whole country and sent shock waves through the Victorian engineering community. The ensuing enquiry revealed that the bridge did not allow for high winds. At the time a gale estimated at force ten or eleven had been blowing down the Tay estuary at right angles to the bridge. The engine itself was salvaged from the river and restored to the railways for service. The collapse of the bridge, opened only nineteen months earlier and passed as safe by the Board of TradeBoard of Trade
The Board of Trade is a committee of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom, originating as a committee of inquiry in the 17th century and evolving gradually into a government department with a diverse range of functions...
, is still the most famous bridge disaster of the British Isles. The disaster was commemorated in "The Tay Bridge Disaster
The Tay Bridge Disaster
The Tay Bridge Disaster is a poem written in 1880 by the Scottish poet William McGonagall, who has been widely acclaimed as the worst poet in British history...
", one of the best-known verse efforts of William McGonagall. German poet Theodor Fontane
Theodor Fontane
Theodor Fontane was a German novelist and poet, regarded by many as the most important 19th-century German-language realist writer.-Youth:Fontane was born in Neuruppin into a Huguenot family. At the age of sixteen he was apprenticed to an apothecary, his father's profession. He became an...
within 10 days of the disaster wrote his famous poem Die Brück’ am Tay.
The second bridge
A new double-track bridge was designed by William Henry BarlowWilliam Henry Barlow
On 28 December 1879, the central section of the North British Railway's bridge across the River Tay near Dundee collapsed in the Tay Bridge disaster as an express train crossed it in a heavy storm. All 75 passengers and crew on the train were killed...
and built by William Arrol & Co.
Sir William Arrol & Co.
Sir William Arrol & Co. was a leading Scottish civil engineering business founded by William Arrol and based in Glasgow. It built some of the most famous bridges in the United Kingdom including the Forth Bridge and Tower Bridge in London.-Early history:...
18 metres (59.1 ft) upstream of, and parallel to, the original bridge. The bridge proposal was formally incorporated in July 1881 and the foundation stone laid on 6 July 1883. Construction involved 25000 metric tons (27,557.8 ST) of iron and steel, 70000 metric tons (77,161.8 ST) of concrete, ten million bricks (weighing 37500 metric tons (41,336.7 ST)) and three million rivets. Fourteen men lost their lives during its construction, most by drowning.
The stumps of the original bridge piers are still visible above the surface of the Tay even at high tide.
The second bridge opened on 13 July 1887 and remains in use. In 2003, a £20.85 million strengthening and refurbishment project (£ as of ), on the bridge won the British Construction Industry Civil Engineering Award
British Construction Industry Awards
The British Construction Industry Awards were launched by the New Civil Engineer magazine and Thomas Telford Ltd - both owned by the Institution of Civil Engineers - in 1998....
, in consideration of the staggering scale and logistics involved. More than 1000 metric tons (1,102.3 ST) of bird droppings were scraped off the ironwork lattice of the bridge using hand tools, and bagged into 25 kilograms (55.1 lb) sacks. Hundreds of thousands of rivets were removed and replaced, all work being done in very exposed conditions high over a firth
Firth
Firth is the word in the Lowland Scots language and in English used to denote various coastal waters in Scotland and England. In mainland Scotland it is used to describe a large sea bay, or even a strait. In the Northern Isles it more usually refers to a smaller inlet...
with fast-running tides.
See also
- History of DundeeHistory of DundeeDundee is the fourth-largest city in Scotland. Its history begins with the Picts in the Iron Age. During the Medieval Era, it was the site of many battles. Throughout the Industrial Revolution, the local jute industry caused the city to grow rapidly...
- David KirkaldyDavid KirkaldyDavid Kirkaldy was a Scottish engineer who pioneered the testing of materials as a service to engineers during the Victorian period. He established a test house in Southwark, London and built a large hydraulic tensile test machine, or tensometer for examining the mechanical properties of...
- List of places in Angus
- Harry WattsHarry WattsHarry Watts was a Sunderland sailor and diver, who rescued over 40 people from drowning during his lifetime - and assisted in the rescue of another 120 people.-Early life:...
External links
- Tay Bridge page on railscot.co.uk
- The Great Tay Bridge, The New York Times, 30 December 1879