Fall of the Tay Bridge

Swinfen, David B.

ISBN 10: 1873644345 / ISBN 13: 9781873644348

Published by Mercat Press, 1994

About this Item

Seller Inventory # U9781873644348

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Fall of the Tay Bridge
• Publisher: Mercat Press
• Publication Date: 1994
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1873644345
• ISBN 13: 9781873644348
• Binding: Soft cover
• Edition: 1786776273.
• Condition: Very Good
• Dust Jacket Condition: 47077108
• Signed: 8/15/2026 6:44:33 AM
• Seller catalogs:
  • 9781873644348
  • 1
  • U

About this title

Synopsis

It took 600 men six years to build and was one of the longest bridges in the world. On its completion in 1878, famous visitors, including the Emperor of Brazil, Prince Leopold of the Belgians and Queen Victoria herself, came to pay homage to this marvel of Victorian engineering. Then, on the night of 28 December 1879, the unthinkable happened. Battered by an apocalyptic storm, the thirteen ‘high girders’ of the rail bridge over the Tay estuary fell headlong into the river below, carrying with them a train and all its passengers and crew. There were no survivors.

What caused the fall of the Tay Bridge, and who was really to blame? Returning to the subject since the first edition of The Fall of the Tay Bridge in 1994, David Swinfen has meticulously analysed new evidence and now presents a solution to the riddle which has perplexed historians and engineers for generations: what really brought the bridge down?