The collapse of Tay Rail Bridge – The ongoing mystery

The Tay Rail Bridge collapse on December 28th, 1879 is one of the most disasterous accidents in British History has long been seen as a disaster of symbolic significance. It was headline news not only in Britain but across the world and its aftermath was closely watched. The enquiry into the bridge collapse may have provided one answer but for engineers the question of why exactly the bridge broke remains a vexed question. Almost 120 years since the bridge went down new books still come out offering differing solutions.

However besides the musings of railway enthusiasts and experts in metallurgy what interests me is some of the folklore attached to the bridge and its collapse and the river Tay and its bridges. The one example is the concept of the Tay Bridge ghost train. Every year on the anniversary people still gather to watch for the lights of the train which supposedly can be seen only to suddenly disappear half way across the bridge.

But there are many other stories connected to the disaster some well known, some obscure and I mean to collect some of them here as well as keep an ye on the Tay and its various bridges.