HFF

The River Tay Road Bridge Commemorative Obelisk.

The Tay Road Bridge was built to replace the former Tay ferry service, popularly known in Dundee as "the Fifie". A passenger and vehicle ferry service across the River Tay operated from Craigie Pier, Dundee, to Newport-on-Tay. The bridge was opened formally on 18 August 1966, by the Queen Mother, and the bridge authorities organised a day of free events on Sunday 21 August 2016 to celebrate the occasion.

Originally the bridge was originally a bidirectional toll road with the original 1966 toll for motorcycles, cars and goods vehicles of 1/-, 2/6 and 10/-, respectively. On 31 May 2007, the Scottish Parliament voted to scrap tolls on all bridges in Scotland.

I often used to cross the River Tay using the ferry from Newport Fife to Dundee, and remember cart horses pulling trailers piled up with jute on the quayside in the 40s and early 50s. It's all different now. One of the ferries was a paddle steamer. I remember my dad taking me to look at the large pistons which worked the engine on one of the ferries, possibly the paddle steamer.

Behind the obelisk is Dundee's V&A museum, and it's possible to see the rail bridge in the far distance.