The
Tyne Bridge is a through arch bridge over the
River TyneThe River Tyne is a river in North East England in Great Britain. It is formed by the confluence of two rivers: the North Tyne and the South Tyne. These two rivers converge at Warden Rock near Hexham in Northumberland at a place dubbed 'The Meeting of the Waters'.The North Tyne rises on the...
in
North East EnglandNorth East England is one of the nine official regions of England. It covers Northumberland, County Durham, Tyne and Wear, and Teesside . The only cities in the region are Durham, Newcastle upon Tyne and Sunderland...
, linking
Newcastle upon TyneNewcastle upon Tyne is a city and metropolitan borough of Tyne and Wear, in North East England. Historically a part of Northumberland, it is situated on the north bank of the River Tyne...
and
GatesheadGateshead is a town in Tyne and Wear, England and is the main settlement in the Metropolitan Borough of Gateshead. Historically a part of County Durham, it lies on the southern bank of the River Tyne opposite Newcastle upon Tyne and together they form the urban core of Tyneside...
. It was designed by the engineering firm
Mott, Hay and AndersonMott, Hay and Anderson was a successful 20th century firm of consulting civil engineers based in the United Kingdom. The company traded until 1989, when it merged with Sir M. MacDonald & Partners to form Mott MacDonald.-Early years:...
, who later designed the
Forth Road BridgeThe Forth Road Bridge is a suspension bridge in east central Scotland. The bridge, opened in 1964, spans the Firth of Forth, connecting the capital city Edinburgh, at South Queensferry, to Fife, at North Queensferry...
, and was built by
Dorman Long and Co.Dorman Long, based in Middlesbrough, North East England, was a major steel producer, which diversified into bridge building, and is now a manufacturer of steel components and construction equipment for bridges and other structures...
of
MiddlesbroughMiddlesbrough is a large town situated on the south bank of the River Tees in north east England, that sits within the ceremonial county of North Yorkshire...
. At the time of its construction it was the world's longest single span bridge. The bridge was officially opened on 10 October 1928 by King
George VGeorge V was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 through the First World War until his death in 1936....
and has since become a defining symbol of
TynesideTyneside is a conurbation in North East England, defined by the Office of National Statistics, which is home to over 80% of the population of Tyne and Wear. It includes the city of Newcastle upon Tyne and the Metropolitan Boroughs of Gateshead, North Tyneside and South Tyneside — all settlements on...
. It currently stands as the
tenth tallest structure in the city.
History of construction
The earliest bridge across the Tyne,
Pons AeliusPons Aelius or Newcastle Roman Fort was an auxiliary castra and small Roman settlement on Hadrian's Wall in the Roman province of Britannia Inferior...
, was built by the Romans near the location of the present Tyne Bridge. Built around 122, it fell into disrepair, and a stone bridge was built in 1270. This was in turn destroyed by the great flood of 1771. In 1781, a new stone bridge across the Tyne was completed. Increased shipping activity led to the stone bridge being removed in 1866 to make way for construction of the present
Swing BridgeThe Swing Bridge is a swing bridge over the River Tyne, England connecting Newcastle upon Tyne and Gateshead, and lies between the Tyne Bridge and the High Level Bridge. The hydraulic power to move the bridge is derived from electrically driven pumps...
, which opened in 1876.
The idea for a bridge at the location of the present Tyne Bridge dates back to 1864, due to concern about the cost of tolls on the
High Level BridgeThe High Level Bridge is a road and railway bridge spanning the River Tyne between Newcastle upon Tyne and Gateshead in North East England.-Design:...
- although the first serious discussions took place in 1883. Committees met over the next three decades, but it wasn't until the early 1920s that proposals were commenced in earnest, boosted by the chance to secure central government funding. On 29 April 1924, Newcastle and Gateshead approved the plans, and the Newcastle upon Tyne and Gateshead (Corporations) Bridge Act was passed on 7 August that year, with an estimated cost of
£The pound sterling , commonly called the pound, is the official currency of the United Kingdom, its Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, British Antarctic Territory and Tristan da Cunha. It is subdivided into 100 pence...
1 million including land acquisitions. The final cost on completion was £1.2 million.
Work started in August 1925 with
Dorman LongDorman Long, based in Middlesbrough, North East England, was a major steel producer, which diversified into bridge building, and is now a manufacturer of steel components and construction equipment for bridges and other structures...
acting as the building contractors. Despite the dangers of the building work, only one worker (Charles Tosh) died in the building of this structure.
The Tyne Bridge was designed by
Mott, Hay and AndersonMott, Hay and Anderson was a successful 20th century firm of consulting civil engineers based in the United Kingdom. The company traded until 1989, when it merged with Sir M. MacDonald & Partners to form Mott MacDonald.-Early years:...
who based their design on the
Hell Gate BridgeThe Hell Gate Bridge or Hell's Gate Bridge is a steel through arch railroad bridge between Astoria in the borough of Queens and Randall's and Wards Islands in New York City, over a portion of the East River known...
in
New YorkNew York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
(which was completed in 1916).
The bridge was completed on 25 February 1928 and opened on 10 October by King George V and
Queen MaryMary of Teck was the queen consort of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Empress of India, as the wife of King-Emperor George V....
, who were the first to use the roadway travelling in their
AscotThe Ascot was an English automobile, the brainchild of Cyril Pullin , that was manufactured between 1928 and 1930 in Letchworth, Hertfordshire. The factory had previously been used by Phoenix. The car was based largely on the Hungarian Fejes, with chassis and 10hp engine assembled from welded steel...
landau. The Tyne Bridge's towers were built of Cornish
graniteGranite is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, felsic, igneous rock. Granite usually has a medium- to coarse-grained texture. Occasionally some individual crystals are larger than the groundmass, in which case the texture is known as porphyritic. A granitic rock with a porphyritic...
and were designed as warehouses with five storeys. However, the inner floors of the warehouses in the bridge's towers were not completed and, as a result, the storage areas were never used. Lifts for passengers and goods were built in the towers to provide access to the
QuaysideThe Quayside is an area along the banks of the River Tyne in Newcastle upon Tyne and Gateshead in the North East of England, United Kingdom....
although they are no longer in use.
The bridge was originally painted green with special paint made by J. Dampney Co. of Gateshead. The same colours were used to paint the bridge in 2000. The bridge spans 531 feet (161.8 m) and the road deck is 84 feet (25.6 m) above the river level.
Technical Info
| Total length (includes approaches) |
389 metres |
| Length of main arch span (pier to pier) |
161.8 metres |
| Rise of arch (above pins) |
55 metres |
| Clear height (above high water level) |
26 metres |
| Total height (above high water level) |
59 metres |
| Width (bridge) |
17.08 metres |
| Width (approaches) |
24 metres |
| Total weight of steelwork (arch only) |
3,556 tonnes |
| Total weight of steelwork (including approaches) |
7,112 tonnes |
| Total number of rivets (including approaches) |
777,124 |
History of operations
TramA tram is a passenger rail vehicle which runs on tracks along public urban streets and also sometimes on separate rights of way. It may also run between cities and/or towns , and/or partially grade separated even in the cities...
lines were built into the Tyne Bridge structure and ready for immediate use after the opening ceremony in October 1928. Tram car No. 289 was the last Newcastle tram to run into Gateshead over the Tyne Bridge on Sunday 5 March 1950 at approximately 10.55 pm. The tram lines were subsequently removed, although some vestiges of these remain such as redundant fixings for overhead power lines.
Golden jubilee celebrations were held on 10 October 1978, when one thousand balloons were released into the sky above the Tyne to celebrate the anniversary of the Tyne Bridge. To mark the occasion a cavalcade of vintage vehicles and a procession of people in period dress stopped traffic, re-creating the opening ceremony when King George V declared the bridge open in 1928.
Upon opening, the bridge carried the A1 road. Following the opening of the
Tyne TunnelThe Tyne Tunnel is a the name given to two two-lane toll vehicular tunnels under the River Tyne in North East England. Completed in 1967 and 2011 respectively, they connect the town of Jarrow on the south bank of the river with North Shields and Howdon on the north...
in 1967 however, the A1 was diverted to the East and the road became the A6127. Following the construction of the Newcastle Western Bypass, the A1 moved again and the bridge was redesignated as the
A167The A167 is a road in North East England. Most of its route was formerly the A1 as most of it is the original route of the Great North Road until the A1 was re-routed with the opening of the A1 in the 1960s....
which it remains today.
External links
Images
Books
- Addyman, J. and Fawcett, B. The High Level Bridge and Newcastle Central Station: 150 Years Across the Tyne. By the North Eastern Railway Association for the High Level Bridge. 1999. ISBN 1-873513-28-3.
- Linsley, S. Spanning the Tyne: Building of the Tyne Bridge, 1925-28. Newcastle Libraries and Information Service, Newcastle City Council. 1998. ISBN 1-85795-009-7.
- Manders, F. & Potts, R. Crossing the Tyne. Tyne Bridge Publishing. 2001. ISBN 1-85795-121-2.