ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the history, design and construction of the Tay railway bridge. The design and construction of the present bridge are so inextricably bound up with the failure of its predecessor in the disaster of 1879 that any description of it must begin with the story of the earlier first effort to bridge the Tay. The construction took five years from 1882–1887, and the bridge celebrated the centenary of its opening on 20 June 1987. The Tay Bridge was designed for the North British Railway by Thomas Bouch, an experienced engineer with many successful bridges to his credit, including two similar in design to the Tay Bridge in the North of England, which carried railway traffic until they were dismantled in 1962. For most of his engineering life, Bouch held the view that contemporary structures were over-designed, and he introduced considerable refinement of material into both his masonry and iron bridges.
