Product Description

Over 125 years ago, barely a year and a half after the Tay Railway Bridge was built, William McGonnagal composed his poem about the Tay Bridge Disaster, the poem about Britain's worst-ever civil engineering disaster. Over 80 people lost their lives in the fall of the Tay Bridge, but how did it happen? The accident reports say that high wind and poor construction were to blame, but Peter Lewis, an Open University engineering professor, tells the real story of how the bridge so spectacularly collapsed in December 1879.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #142270 in Books
• Published on: 2004-11-01
• Format: Illustrated
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 192 pages

From the Author
The Tay Bridge disaster of December 28th 1879 shocked and horrified Victorian society. It came at the end of a terrible year for the British Empire. They had lost a whole army brigade in the Zulu War in January, and the Consul in Afghanistan had been butchered in September. The country was suffering a severe economic depression, partly because the rail network had opened up the country to products from abroad, such as cheap grain from the American prairies. And then the longest bridge in the world (approved by the Government) collapsed in a storm. This book describes the reinvestigation of the disaster from the original witness evidence and the set of photographs of the remains now held in Dundee City Library. It confirms everything concluded at the time: the bridge was badly designed, built and maintained. However, it is likely that metal fatigue helped bring the structure down that fateful night. Enlargements of the court pictures shows all the terrible design!
defects in the high girders section of the bridge, which brought it down. Warnings of the deteriorating state of the structure were ignored or concealed, and a whole train with at least 75 passengers and crew were lost that night. Never before (or since) has such an event occurred. The forensic re-investigation also shows why engineers had to convince the travelling public that they could build safely, the new bridge being the first result. However, it was the Firth of Forth bridge which came to symbolise that effort, a bridge which has become an icon to structural integrity. The book reveals that other engineers could build safe brisges from iron, especially Gustave Eiffel, whose iron pipe bridges still survive and carry trains in the Massif Centrale in France. His bridges predate the old Tay bridge by 10 years. And it his methods which have resulted in the brand new Millau road bridge in the same region.

From the Inside Flap
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From the Back Cover
125 years ago, barely a year and a half after the Tay Railway Bridge was built, William McGonnagal was composing the poem about the Tay Bridge Disaster, the worst poem about Britian's worst ever civil engineering disaster. Over 80 people lost their lives in the fall of the Tay Bridge, but how did it happen? The accident report says it was the high wind and poor construction, but Peter lewis tells the real story of how the bridge spectacularly collapsed on 28 December 1879. Dr Peter lewis is an Open Uiversity senior lecturer in Engineering. He is an acknowledged expert on the Tay Bridge Disaster and regularly gives talks on its downfall.

Customer Reviews

Fall of the Tay Railway Bridge
This was an education exercise for me because while living in Dundee I took an interest in the history of the city but could find no modern insight into the lead up and cause of the failure of the bridge. Only that it was badly built, but there are many similar structures in the world that have not failed.

truth at last!
This book provides the key evidence which proves that the Tay bridge fell in 1879 due to poor design, NOT the strength of the wind that night. It is based on the photographs taken for the official inquiry, and the witness evidence given. Lewis's conclusions agree with those of the inquiry, but also suggest that metal fatigue also played a crucial role in the tragedy.The problem was not widely recognised at the time, but is now a well-known cause of premature failure of structures. Many authorities still cling to the high wind theory, but it is now no longer tenable.