Tay Bridge, Dundee - Ref: WC1648
Sir Thomas Bouch was born in Thursby, Cumberland in 1822. In 1849 he moved to Edinburgh to manage Edinburgh & Northern Railway Co., but resigned in 1851 to set up as a consultant engineer.
In 1854, Bouch put forward schemes for bridging the rivers Forth and Tay, but the idea was not accepted. In 1869, the North British Railway set up the Tay Bridge Undertaking to build a bridge.
Alexander Wilson who took this photograph, was a supervisor in a Dundee jute mill for over 20 years. He bequeathed much of his collection and £50, to cover the costs involved, to the Free Library Committee of Dundee in 1923.