In 1871, the foundation stone was laid for the Tay Railway Bridge to be built across the mile-wide Firth of Tay on the east Scottish coast. The two-mile bridge of lattice girders on ironwork columns was opened 31 May 1878. At the time, it was the longest bridge in the world. It had a clearance of about 88-ft above the high water mark in the middle of the firth to allow ships to pass up the Tay to Perth. Sir Thomas Bouch was the railway engineer in charge of its construction. He was knighted in Jun 1878, the month after it opened. It collapsed the following year, in a fierce gale on 28 Dec 1879, killing a trainload of people.«