First Bridge on the Forth [Scottish rail bridge, built 1890, 73 deaths]

“Eh, naw, lad.” Queensferry Mack spat into the water. “Ye’ll no be gettin a brig ayean they waters. There’s seventy men’ll die afore ever ye span the Forth.”
The engineer laughed. “We’re pretty good at building bridges nowadays,” he said.
Mack shot him a sideways glance. An accident, men’d call it. Drown this city-bred coofie, save the lives of seventy men and the hearts of seventy mothers and wives. Let the Firth of the Forth remain a ferry-crossing, given wind an weather.
* * *
I shid ha’ done it, whispers a ghost in a phantom ferryboat, as the death-toll begins to mount.