On this day, December 28, 1879, the Tay Bridge disaster occurred.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Tay Bridge disaster


A contemporary illustration

Details
Date: 28 December 1879; 19:16
Location: Dundee, Scotland
Line: Edinburgh to Aberdeen Line
Operator: North British Railway
Incident type: Bridge collapse
Cause: Structural failure

Statistics
Trains: 1
Passengers: 59
Deaths: 75 estimate, 60 known dead

The Tay Bridge Disaster occurred during a violent storm on Sunday 28 December 1879, when the first Tay Rail Bridge collapsed as a train from Burntisland 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 less extensive and robust than on previous similar designs by Bouch.

Bouch had sought expert advice on wind loading when designing a proposed rail bridge over the Firth of Forth; as a result of that advice he had made no explicit allowance for wind loading in the design of the Tay Bridge. There were other flaws in detailed design, in maintenance, and in quality control of castings, all of which were, at least in part, Bouch's responsibility.

Bouch died less than a year after the disaster, his reputation ruined. Future British bridge designs had to allow for wind loadings of up to 56 pounds per square foot (2.7 kilopascals). Bouch's design for the Forth Bridge was not used.

{snip}

[hunter]

1. All modern engineering disasters echo this one.

Boeing's 737 Max killed more people.