The first bridge over the River Tay took ten years to build and fell down in one night.  This is the best account of that saga.  John Prebble, a historian and not an engineer, nevertheless makes clear the physical difficulties with which the project was beset, the engineering problems and setbacks, and the fundamental structural weaknesses that led to the disaster.

Industrial historians still argue over the precise causes of the bridge's fall to this day.  Prebble presents the surviving accounts and lets you make up your own mind.