Tay Rail Bridge, Dundee - Ref: WC1654
Photograph from Alexander Wilson collection. This photograph shows the completed bridge with a train starting to cross.
Many people came to see the bridge including Ulysses E. Grant, ex-president of the USA, the Emperor of Brazil and Prince Leopold of Belgium. Queen Victoria crossed the bridge in the summer of 1879 shortly before she knighted Thomas Bouch, the original architect of the scheme..
Part of a poem by William McGonagall reads "Beautiful Railway Bridge of the silvery Tay, I hope that God will protect all passengers by night and day, And no accident befall them while cross the bridge of the silvery Tay, For that would be most awful to be seen, Near by Dundee and the Magdalen Green."
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.