Underneath The River Tay Road Bridge

The Tay Road Bridge crosses the Firth of Tay, linking Newport in NE Fife with the City of Dundee. At 2250m (1.4 miles) in length, this was the longest road bridge in the UK when it was opened on 18th August 1966 by Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother (1900 - 2002). It carries the A92 Trunk Road into the heart of Dundee, replacing a ferry service affectionately known as the Fifies. The bridge consists of 42 spans with a navigation channel located closer to the Fife side. During the construction of the bridge, 140,000 tons of concrete, 4,600 tons of mild steel and 8,150 tons of structural steel was used. The bridge has a gradient of 1:81 running from 9.75 m (32.0 ft) above sea-level in Dundee to 38.1 m (125.0 ft) above sea-level in Fife.

The bridge took 3½ years to build at a cost of approximately £6 million.

When I was a child living in St.Andrews (Fife) in the 1940s and early 50s, we used to travel by bus to Newport and then cross on the ferry into Dundee, either to visit relatives or to attend the dental hospital there. The biggest excitement was when the paddle steamer was working and my Dad used to take me into the engine room to watch the massive pistons working the ferry. Three vessels operated the service, namely the B. L. Nairn (a paddle steamer built in 1929); the Abercraig and the Scotscraig (diesel powered, fitted with Voith Schneider propellers and built in the Caledon Shipyard in Dundee). The paddle steamer was only used when the other ferries needed maintenance.

www.britishpathe.com/video/tay-bridge-has-royal-opening

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tay_Road_Bridge

When the road bridge was opened the paddle steamer was scrapped while the Scotscraig and Abercraig ended their days in Malta.

The road bridge is convenient but the magic is lost.

These days we still visit Dundee as one of my granddaughters is now working as a dentist there, having studied at the aforementioned Dental hospital.