The New Tay Bridge. A course of lectures delivered at the Royal school of military engineering at Chatham, November 1888. de BARLOW Crawford - 1889

125, Strand London. New York: 12, Cortlandt Street.: E. & F. N. Spon, 1889. Hardcover. Very Good +. Elephant Folio - over 15 - 23" tall. In VG+, first edition, 1889, 1 pl, 22 illustrations. Author inscribed. In the publishers purple gilt printed cloth (of the bridge), gilt title, corners rubbed. Spine, gilt titles, edges bumped. Internally, half title, [10], [1], 2-46 pp, 1 pl (folding), 22 photographic illustrations with guards, occasional spot to blanks, printed by William Clowes. Authors ink dedication to tp 1913. (375*277 mm). (Avery Memorial Architectural Library Cat. p537. Bibliography of British Railway History p486). Built to replace the original bridge. Which on the 28 December 1879 collapsed during high winter gales. A train with six carriages carrying seventy-five passengers and crew, crossing at the time of the collapse, plunged into the icy waters of the Tay. All seventy-five people on board were killed. The collapse of the bridge, despite having only opened nineteen months earlier and having been passed as safe by the Board of Trade, had a long-term impact on wider society. According to some sources, it is still regarded as having been the most notorious bridge disaster to have ever occurred in the British Isles.