Wylam Bridge

Infobox Bridge

---

bridge_name=Wylam Bridge
caption=
official_name=
locale =Northumberland, England
carries=Road
crosses=River Tyne
maint=
begin=1836
complete=1836
open=1836
below=
traffic=Double Carriageway
design= Beam. Nine convert|40|ft|abbr=on spans, steel superstructure on stone piers.
toll=
mainspan=
length= 360ft
width=24ft

Wylam Bridge is a road bridge in England linking the residential area of North Wylam and neighbouring villages in Northumberland like Heddon-on-the-Wall and Horsley with the train station in South Wylam as well as west Gateshead, including the villages of Ryton and Crawcrook.

History

The River Tyne at Wylam has been forded for a very long time but because of the industrial revolution in Great Britain, a more suitable method of crossing the river at this point was required to link the ironworks on the north bank with the railway on the south bank so that goods could be taken to Newcastle upon Tyne and other parts of the country. At this time there was a waggonway on the north bank but it only went as far as Lemington. In 1836 a bridge was built over the river. It was constructed from timber sections supported on stone piers and carried road traffic and a waggonway. In 1897 the bridge ceased to be used for carrying the waggonway because of the construction of Wylam Railway Bridge. In the same year the bridge was strengthened by being reconstructed using steel. A couple of years later in 1899 a new toll house was built on the north side of the bridge, although the original toll house on the south side still stood up until 1960. The toll for pedestrians to cross the bridge was one penny but in 1936 an opposition to the tolls led to their acquisition by Northumberland County Council. The bridge was strengthened again during World War II in 1942 so that it could be used by tanks and other heavy military vehicles. Improvements to the bridge continued in the 1950s when two piers were replaced because of erosion and in 1959 when the bridge was widened to convert|24|ft|abbr=on. Improvements continued as recently as 2007, when the railings were strengthened following a fatal car crash in which three people died. [cite web
title = Wylam Bridge
work = Bridges on the Tyne
publisher =
url = http://www.bridgesonthetyne.co.uk/wylam.html
accessdate = 2008-07-04]

External links

* [http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/north-east-news/todays-evening-chronicle/tm_objectid=16729893&method=full&siteid=50081&headline=bridge-fears-after-triple-death-crash-name_page.html Bridge fears after triple death crash]

References