Tyne Bridge

Infobox Bridge

---

bridge_name = Tyne Bridge
caption = Tyne Bridge looking towards the modern Sage Gateshead with the now moved Tuxedo Princess moored below. The banner is advertising the 2006 Great North Run.
official_name =
locale = Newcastle upon Tyne and Gateshead, England
carries = "A167 road"
Motor vehicles
Cyclists
Pedestrians
crosses = River Tyne
maint =
begin = August 1925
complete = 25 February 1928
open = 10 October 1928
below = 26m
traffic =
design = compression arch suspended-deck bridge
toll =
mainspan = 161.8m
length = 389m
width = 17m

The Tyne Bridge is a compression arch suspended-deck bridge over the River Tyne in North East England, linking Newcastle upon Tyne and Gateshead. It was designed by the engineering firm Mott, Hay and Anderson, who later designed the Forth Road Bridge, and was built by Dorman Long and Co. of Middlesbrough. It was officially opened on 10 October 1928 by King George V.

History of construction

The earliest bridge across the Tyne, Pons Aelius, 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 Bridge, 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 Bridge - 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 £1m including land acquisitions. The final cost on completion was £1.2m.

Work started in August 1925 with Dorman Long 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 Anderson who based their design on the Hell Gate Bridge in New York (which was completed in 1916) and the Sydney Harbour Bridge, which was designed in 1916 and constructed commencing in 1923. During construction, before the road deck had been installed, the costermongers of Newcastle wrote to the Lord Mayor to express their concern that their horses would not be able to cross as the arch was too steep.Fact|date=May 2007

The bridge was completed on 25 February 1928 and opened on 10 October by King George V and Queen Mary, who were the first to use the roadway travelling in their Ascot landau. The Tyne Bridge's towers were built of Cornish granite 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 Quayside, but these 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 for 2000. The bridge spans unit foot|531|1|lk=on feet and the road deck is unit foot|84|1 above the river level.

History of operations

Tram 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 10.55pm. 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 opening 1928.

Upon opening the bridge carried the A1 road however following the opening of the Tyne Tunnel in 1967, 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 A167 which it remains today.

In 2008 a temporary bamboo sculpture was commissioned as the eighth bridge over the Tyne; the Bambuco Bridge was open between the 18th and 20th July 2008. It was placed between the Tyne Bridge and Gateshead Millennium Bridge.

External links

*
* [http://www.bridgesonthetyne.co.uk Bridges On The Tyne]

Webcams

* [http://www.bbc.co.uk/tyne/content/webcams/tyne_bridge_webcam.shtml Tyne - In Pictures] . Webcam from the BBC.
* [http://www.tynebridgewebcam.com/ Tyne Bridge Webcam] . Webcam from Telewest.

Pictures

* [http://www.bbc.co.uk/nationonfilm/topics/misc-work/tyne-bridge-construction-building.shtml BBC Nation on Film] . From the BBCi homepage. Includes footage of the construction of the Tyne Bridge. Retrieved April 23, 2005.
* [http://www.bbc.co.uk/tyne/content/panoramas/360_stmarys.shtml BBC Tyne In PIctures - Panorama] . Panoramic view of Tyne Bridge. Retrieved April 23, 2005.
* [http://www.amber-online.com/gallery/exhibition29/ Photographs from the Dorman Long collection of the building of Newcastle upon Tyne's George V or Tyne Bridge in the 1920] . Retrieved April 23, 2005.

References

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.

Websites

* [http://www.bbc.co.uk/insideout/northeast/series3/tyne_bridge_northeasthistory.shtml BBC Inside Out - Tyne Bridge] . From the BBCi homepage. Retrieved 23 April 2005.