Tay Bridge Disaster

Why did the Tay Bridge collapse on Sunday, December 28, 1879?

At about 7.15 p.m. on Sunday, December 28, 1879, during the worst storm form for five years, and a train was travelling across the Tay Rail Bridge attempting to cross the Firth of Tay on the last Sabbath day of 1879, part of the bridge collapsed into the river, taking with it an engine, 5 carriages, a brake-van & 75 people all of whom were drowned.

For a long time people have been trying to figure out how and why the bridge collapsed taking the lives of everyone on it with it. However still no-one knows why the bridge collapsed. However 3 main theories have been thought up which try to explain why the Tay Bridge collapsed that stormy night. There are also some little theories from the locals which try to explain why the Tay Bridge in Dundee collapsed that historic night. It was and still is the worst rail disaster due to collapse of structure as far back as records go in the British History (apart from during War actions).

Major Theories

Theory 1

Dr Bill Dow – Retired Physicist

This first theory concentrates on the train derailing. It says that lift was created by the wind causing the train to derail. It also states that 2 girders were blown off during construction and that 1 of them was reused making the structure weaker than it should be. He also says that the girder that was reused was actually bent. Another key factor in this theory is that Dr Dow says that where 2 girders meet to start the cage area there was a gap which could also cause the train to derail. Dr Dow says that he believes the 2nd Class carriage was the first to derail and ran into a cover plate (triangular piece of metal) causing a minor shock-wave forcing the poorly built cast iron lugs to crack leaving the bridge in a high wind without the sufficient structural support causing the bridge to eventually break.

He also says that the girder nearest to Wormit (a small town located on the banks of the Firth of Tay in North East Fife, Scotland), in the high girder section of the bridge, had bent during the life time of the bridge. It was straightened out and reused but overtime started to return to its old bent shape. He also says he thinks bits of the bridge were damaged and the so called repairs carried out by Henry Noble – man in charge of the maintenance of the bridge – were really putting the bridge out of alignment. Where there was a hole in the girder he filled it with wax & iron fillings painted to look like solid iron.