Railway Ride over the Tay Bridge
Stunning train's eye views across the Tay rail bridge from Fife to Dundee
The Tay Bridge, running between Wormit in Fife and Dundee, became notorious when it tragically collapsed in 1879, killing 75 passengers. At that time it was the longest bridge in the world and its collapse remains one of the worst structural disasters in British history. In 1887 a second bridge was built, and this film, shot 20 years after the disaster, departs from Wormit station and transports the viewer from Fife to Dundee along the bridge on an atmospheric 'phantom ride'.
The bridge is most impressive when its two-and-three-quarter-mile track stretches out in front of the camera. Its precise straightness causes simple cuts to become curious optical tricks, particularly the point when men suddenly appear on what was an empty bridge.
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The Grand Tour
The Victorian age witnessed a transport revolution, but even at the end of Victoria's reign, overseas travel was still beyond the reach of many. Films, though, could transport their audiences to distant lands.
Filmmakers followed the indispensable Baedeker guides (the Lonely Planet of its day), presenting their own vicarious 'Grand Tour': from Vienna to Venice, from Niagara to the Nile. And with most people seldom venturing far from their homes, images of Britain's own varied landscape carried a taste of the exotic. One spectacular innovation - the 'phantom ride', filmed from a moving vehicle - gave audiences the sensation of the journey itself.
77 videos in this collection
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Panorama of the Paris Exhibition No. 3
3
Conway Castle - panoramic view of Conway on the L.& N.W. Railway
4
A Sea Cave near Lisbon
5
Pope Leo XIII Being Seated Bestowing Blessing
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Fisherman and Boat at Port Said
7
Women Fetching Water from the Nile
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Stonehenge - Panorama of the Ancient Druidical Remains
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Panorama of Niagara Falls
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Cinematographic View of the Royal Albert Bridge (1901)
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Phantom Ride - Chamonix
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Patrick Street, Cork
13
Boys Bathing - Venice
14
Opening of the Kiel Canal
15
Cunard Mail Steamer Lucania Leaving For America (1901)
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Panorama around the Eiffel Tower
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Tram Journey through Southampton
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Railway Ride over the Tay Bridge
19
A Steamship Passes By
20
Panorama of Calcutta, India, From the River Ganges.
21
Railway Traffic
22
Beautiful Panorama of Railway Ride from St. Germans to Millbay (1901)
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Rocky Shore
24
Churned Waters
25
The Mount Pilatus Railway
26
Gang Making Railway - South Africa
27
Queensbury Tunnel
28
Royal Train
29
Tetherball, Or Do-do
30
Up the River
31
Railway Traffic on the L.N.W.R.
32
Ox Wagon
33
Greasy Pole Game aboard Ship
34
Comic Scene on Board Ship
35
Panorama - Windsor Castle
36
Pleasure Steamers on a River
37
The 'Bluff', Durban
38
Ships Coming to Anchor, South Africa
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Pope Leo XIII Leaving Carriage and Being Ushered Into Garden
40
Adderley Street, Cape Town
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Ship at Sea
42
Bangor Yacht Race
43
Buxton Skyline (1901)
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A Ride on the Peak Tramway
45
Sports on Board Ship
46
Panoramic View of the Morecambe Sea Front (1901)
47
Street
48
Ride on a Tram Car through Belfast (1901)
49
Mailboat Munster Arriving at Holyhead from Dublin
50
Hirse Buses - Oxford St Marble Arch 1
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Liverpool As Seen from the Front of an Electric Car from the Pierhead to the Circus (1901)
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Pope Leo XIII in Carriage
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Over the Tay Bridge on an Express Train (1901)
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Daniels No. 7
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View from an Engine Front - Barnstaple
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Phantom Ride on the Furness Railway (1901)
57
Pope Leo XIII Carried through the Vatican Loggia on His Way to the Sistine Chapel
58
Pope Leo XIII Walking At Twilight Through Some Favourite Haunt In the Gardens
59
Thames River Scenery - Panorama of the Crowded River
60
Rochdale Tram Ride (1905)
61
Scene on Mr. N. Smit's Ostrich Farm, Impanzi, Natal, South Africa
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S.S. Saxonia in Liverpool (1901)
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Ship Departing from Port (c.1901)
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Shipping on the Thames
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Train Tunnel
66
The Vatican Guards, Rome
67
Waves Breaking on a Pier
68
Washing the Sweep
69
Trip to North Wales on the St Elvies (1902)
70
Dignitaries Coming down Gang Plank
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Clyde Regatta
72
Through Miller's Dale (Near Buxton, Derbyshire) Midland Railway
73
Railway Track Viewed from Train
74
Wall Collection
75
Menai Bridge - The Irish Day Mail from Euston Entering the Tubular Bridge over the Menai Straits
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Boat Passengers Embarking
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