Skip to content or footer

Railway Ride over the Tay Bridge

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.

Tags

From the collection

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

Beautiful panorama of the ruins the of Pompeii, with views of Vesuvius
1

Visit to Pompeii

  • 1901
Glimpses of the Exposition from the river Seine
2

Panorama of the Paris Exhibition No. 3

  • 1900
Conwy's bridge, castle and station glide past, as if in a dream, in this beautiful phantom train ride film (no ghosts but apparently no train either) from 1898.
3

Conway Castle - panoramic view of Conway on the L.& N.W. Railway

  • Conwy Castle
  • 1898-02-01
Breath-taking view of waves breaking at the mouth of the Boca do Inferno.
4

A Sea Cave near Lisbon

  • 1896
A film first - a Papal blessing for the camera
5

Pope Leo XIII Being Seated Bestowing Blessing

  • 1898
Victorian-era quayside scenes filmed in northern Egypt
6

Fisherman and Boat at Port Said

  • 1897
A Victorian view of Egypt: exotic and elegantly filmed.
7

Women Fetching Water from the Nile

  • 1897
Get up close to the ancient British icon - before the coach parties descended.
8

Stonehenge - Panorama of the Ancient Druidical Remains

  • Stonehenge
  • 1901
The wonder of Niagara captured in an early film
9

Panorama of Niagara Falls

  • 1901
A view of the many sea-going vessels around Saltash and Plymouth.
10

Cinematographic View of the Royal Albert Bridge (1901)

  • Royal Albert Bridge
  • 1901
Admire the view but don't look down, as this short film takes you on a breathtaking trip through the Alps
11

Phantom Ride - Chamonix

  • 1900
A bustling Victorian street scene taken from Patrick Bridge
12

Patrick Street, Cork

  • 1900
An intimate, playful scene of young lads cooling off and larking about in a Venetian backwater
13

Boys Bathing - Venice

  • 1898
This was one of a series of actuality films made by the Victorian pioneer Birt Acres during 1895. The film is thought to have been shot on the occasion of the opening of the Kiel Canal by the German Kaiser Wilhelm II.
14

Opening of the Kiel Canal

  • 1895
The luxurious RMS Lucania is bound for New York in one of Mitchell & Kenyon's most elaborate and striking films.
15

Cunard Mail Steamer Lucania Leaving For America (1901)

  • Liverpool
  • 1901
Stand in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower and tour the pavilions of Paris's Exposition Universelle of 1900
16

Panorama around the Eiffel Tower

  • 1900
Vivid tour of Victorian Southampton
17

Tram Journey through Southampton

  • Southampton
  • 1900
Stunning train's eye views across the Tay rail bridge from Fife to Dundee
18

Railway Ride over the Tay Bridge

  • Tay Bridge
  • 1897
With energetic waving of handkerchiefs to those on shore, a large steamship heads off
19

A Steamship Passes By

  • 1899
One of the earliest films to be shot in India apparently shows the Calcutta ghats - or does it?
20

Panorama of Calcutta from the River Ganges

  • 1899
Watching the trains go by on a summers day at Wood Green Station.
21

Railway Traffic

  • 1898
Views from an Edwardian railway trip, filmed just east of the Devon-Cornwall border and over the Tamar.
22

Beautiful Panorama of Railway Ride from St. Germans to Millbay (1901)

  • Plymouth
  • 1901
The hypnotic spectacle of waves breaking over rocks
23

Rocky Shore

  • 1896
A hypnotic study of the wake of a ship at sea
24

Churned Waters

  • 1899
Take a trip on the steepest rack railway in the world, scaling Mount Pilatus in the heart of the Swiss Alps
25

The Mount Pilatus Railway

  • 1900
Working conditions in South Africa before the outbreak of the Boer War
26

Gang Making Railway - South Africa

  • 1898
Evocative images taken at the mouth of Victorian Britain's longest train tunnel
27

Queensbury Tunnel

  • 1898
Detective work reveals... this very early film was shot at Southampton Royal Pier Station. But who's the VIP on board?
28

Royal Train

  • 1896
At sea for weeks on end, Victorian sailors had to find ways to amuse themselves and get a little exercise in too
29

Tetherball, Or Do-do

  • 1898
A river tragedy is narrowly averted in this early dramatic scene
30

Up the River

  • 1896
A wonderfully clear view of Bushey Station in Victorian times
31

Railway Traffic on the L.N.W.R.

  • Bushey
  • 1897
Scene in a bustling South African market town before the Boer War
32

Ox Wagon

  • 1898
High jinks on the high seas: sample Union-Castle Line's on-board entertainment.
33

Greasy Pole Game aboard Ship

  • 1900
A dispute on the ocean waves
34

Comic Scene on Board Ship

  • 1898
This panorama takes in Windsor and Eton Riverside station, Windsor Castle, and plenty of Victorians at leisure.
35

Panorama - Windsor Castle

  • Windsor Castle
  • 1898
Victorians messing about on the river
36

Pleasure Steamers on a River

  • 1900
Small yachts sailing off Durban bluff
37

The 'Bluff', Durban

  • 1898
Enticing amateur snapshot of South Africa before the outbreak of the Boer War.
38

Ships Coming to Anchor, South Africa

  • 1898
One of a rare and revealing series of films capturing the first moving images of the Pontiff. Here the Pope leaves his carriage and enters a garden, his rheumatism clearly visible, providing insight into Leo's state of health at the time.
39

Pope Leo XIII Leaving Carriage and Being Ushered Into Garden

  • 1898
Cape Town's handsome high street just before the outbreak of the Boer War
40

Adderley Street, Cape Town

  • 1898
A clever early film that uses the new medium to drag the audience out to sea
41

Ship at Sea

  • 1898
This amateur film of a sailing event is the first film taken by an Irishman in Ireland
42

Bangor Yacht Race

  • 1898
A striking panorama of the Peak District town and its magnificent Georgian Crescent.
43

Buxton Skyline (1901)

  • Buxton
  • 1901
Stunning glimpses of Hong Kong at the dawn of the 20th century through this roller-coaster ride on the vertiginous Peak Tram
44

A Ride on the Peak Tramway

  • 1900
An improvised deck game to pass the time en voyage
45

Sports on Board Ship

  • 1898
Crystal-clear views of town, sands, sea, tourists and locals at the Lancashire resort.
46

Panoramic View of the Morecambe Sea Front (1901)

  • Morecambe
  • 1901
A close brush with the precursor to the number 73 bus in Victorian London.
47

Horse-drawn Traffic in Euston Rd

  • St Pancras
  • 1899
Downtown Belfast is easily recognisable in these scenes from a tramcar ride in 1901.
48

Ride on a Tram Car through Belfast (1901)

  • Belfast
  • 1901
Captivating early film by the pioneer of Welsh cinema.
49

Holyhead Mail Boat 1898

  • Holyhead/Caergybi
  • 1898
A surprisingly close encounter with late-Victorian traffic, looking down Oxford Street from Marble Arch
50

Hirse Buses - Oxford St Marble Arch 1

  • 1898
A fascinating film tour into the heart of Edwardian Liverpool.
51

Liverpool As Seen from the Front of an Electric Car from the Pierhead to the Circus (1901)

  • Liverpool
  • 1901
The Pope arrives in a carriage and bestows a blessing.
52

Pope Leo XIII in Carriage

  • 1898
A journey across the well-known Scottish railway bridge, filmed from the engine front.
53

Over the Tay Bridge on an Express Train (1901)

  • Tay Bridge
  • 1901
Welcome to Place de L'Opera: an early filmed snapshot of Paris landmark the Palais Garnier.
54

Daniels No. 7

  • 1900
A 'phantom ride' along a fondly remembered Devon railway, crossing the distinctive Taw Bridge into Barnstaple on the way to Ilfracombe
55

View from an Engine Front - Barnstaple

  • Barnstaple
  • 1898
A driver's view of the Furness Railway through Furness Abbey Tunnel and Station.
56

Phantom Ride on the Furness Railway (1901)

  • Furness Abbey
  • 1900
Rare images of the first filmed Pope
57

Pope Leo XIII Carried through the Vatican Loggia on His Way to the Sistine Chapel

  • 1898
A rare early film capturing the man and not just the figurehead
58

Pope Leo XIII Walking At Twilight Through Some Favourite Haunt In the Gardens

  • 1898
Don your straw boater and join Victorians at play as you potter down the river at Henley-on-Thames
59

Thames River Scenery - Panorama of the Crowded River

  • Henley-on-Thames
  • 1899
Splendid views of Edwardian Rochdale from the front of a tram after a recent dusting of snow.
60

Rochdale Tram Ride (1905)

  • Rochdale
  • 1905
A break from the Boer War as a travelling film camera brings footage of an exotic feeding time back to Britain
61

Scene on Mr. N. Smit's Ostrich Farm, Impanzi, Natal, South Africa

  • 1900
All ashore! Passengers disembark and crew offload after a long Atlantic crossing.
62

S.S. Saxonia in Liverpool (1901)

  • Liverpool
  • 1901
A large liner draws away from the quay, but where is she headed?
63

Ship Departing from Port (c.1901)

  • 1901
Filmed by Rotherhithe, this film provides a glimpse into Victorian working life on the Thames.
64

Shipping on the Thames

  • 1898
A view out of a railway tunnel, which could have formed part of a longer 'phantom ride' film.
65

Train Tunnel

  • 1898
66

The Vatican Guards, Rome

  • 1898
Intrepid tourists brave the great waves breaking on the marina wall at Brighton
67

Waves Breaking on a Pier

  • 1896
A washerwoman's work is never done - especially when there's a drunken chimney sweep at large...
68

Washing the Sweep

  • 1898
A steamship tour along the picturesque coast from Liverpool to the Menai Straits.
69

Trip to North Wales on the St Elvies (1902)

  • Liverpool
  • 1902
The headgear says it all in this parade of VIPs
70

Dignitaries Coming down Gang Plank

  • 1896
Scenes from the 'Clyde Fortnight'
71

Clyde Regatta

  • 1898
72

Through Miller's Dale (Near Buxton, Derbyshire) Midland Railway

  • 1898
73

Railway Track Viewed from Train

  • 1900
74

Wall Collection

  • 1900
75

Menai Bridge - The Irish Day Mail from Euston Entering the Tubular Bridge over the Menai Straits

  • 1898
76

Boat Passengers Embarking

  • 1900
77

Railway Traffic

  • 1900
View full collection

Report a problem -

We're sorry that you've found a problem with one of our videos. To help us investigate, please provide as much detail as possible.
If you would like us to get back to you about this problem, please provide us with your email address. This won't be used for marketing purposes.
Please enter a valid email address; for instance, [email protected]