Millennium bridge Tyne bridge Swing bridge Queen Elizabeth

Millennium bridge Tyne bridge Swing bridge Queen Elizabeth bridge 2 Build bridge Older picture Open bridge map info

TYNE BRIDGE The design was prepared by Mott Hay and Anderson, and the contractor was Dorman Long of Middlesbrough. Work started in August 1925. The navigation of the river had to be maintained so the building of the massive arch had to be carried out by means of supporting cables until the two halves met with great ceremony on 25 th February, 1928. The photo to the left was taken ten days before that grand meeting.

The Tyne and Swing Bridges The King Edward VII Bridge was the second rail crossing over the Tyne

The Queen Elizabeth II Bridge

On the first floor of the City Library and Arts Centre is a dedicated collection of local information, including local and family history. Its holdings cover the old County of Durham, i. e. , the land between the Tyne and the Tees, with particular emphasis on Newcastle. It contains over 10, 000 books as well as other printed material, such as journals, maps, photographs, newspapers and local records. Current information is also collected to ensure an up to date stock that is relevant to all aspects of the study of Newcastle, not solely its history.

Opened by King George V and Queen Mary in 1928, the Tyne Bridge is one of the northeast’s most readily recognisable landmarks. Influenced by plans for the Sydney Harbour Bridge in Australia, which was built at the same time, at the time of its completion it was considered a technological miracle. Flanked by a tall granite tower at each end of its 531 -foot span, with goods lifts down to the quayside that are still in use today, it cost £ 1. 2 m to construct – a staggering sum for the 1920 s. It is the high graceful arc that made it such a feat of engineering, its construction surprisingly completed with the loss of just one worker’s life. When it was finished, the King gave his first ever sound broadcast in celebration of the new bridge, and in the days that followed, eager motorists converged from all directions to inaugurate it with its first ever traffic jam.

Bridges are among the most beautiful structures created by man. Not only the picturesque old stone bridges seen in rural settings, but the bridges of the railway age and the twentieth century can also be attractive to the eye whether built in concrete, iron or steel. The Tyne has no really big bridges rivalling those on, say, the Forth or the Humber but it is rich in bridges of many different types and periods and some of the most striking bridges anywhere are located in the space of a mile or so of riverbank on Tyneside which surely must have one of the greatest concentrations of bridges anywhere in the world.