Seven Bridges Over the Tyne: Newcastle’s Greatest Icons
The bridges of the Tyne are the most recognisable thing about Newcastle. Seven crossings, each from a different era, each telling a different story about the city and the river it straddles.
Ask anyone who has never been to Newcastle what they know about it and there is a reasonable chance they will mention the Tyne Bridge. The image of that green arch reflected in the river, with the Sage and the Baltic across the water, is one of the most reproduced views in the north of England. But the Tyne Bridge is one of seven crossings between Newcastle and Gateshead, and the collection as a whole represents something remarkable – a set of engineering solutions from different centuries stacked within a few hundred yards of each other, each one a product of its time.
The High Level Bridge: Where It Started
The oldest of the major bridges is the High Level Bridge, designed by Robert Stephenson and opened by Queen Victoria in 1849. It is a cast iron bridge of extraordinary ambition – two levels, the upper for rail traffic, the lower for road, carried on curved ribs 112 feet above the river. At the time of its construction it was the longest high-level bridge in the world. Stephenson was 38 when it opened. The engineering problem he solved – getting railway traffic across a deep river valley in a densely built city without demolishing half the city – shaped how engineers approached similar problems for decades. The bridge still carries trains. The road deck still carries cars. It is 175 years old and it works.
The Tyne Bridge and the Sydney Question
The Tyne Bridge opened in 1928, nine years before the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Both were built by Dorman Long of Middlesbrough. The Sydney bridge is larger, but the Tyne Bridge came first. Whether Sydney was “inspired by” the Tyne Bridge or whether both were simply the natural product of the same engineering approach at the same moment in bridge design is a question that exercises Geordies more than Australians. What is certain is that the two bridges share a family resemblance, that the Tyne Bridge was a prototype for the technology, and that Newcastle got there first. The arch rises 195 feet above high water. The towers at either end, which originally contained warehousing, give it a solidity that the pure arc of Sydney lacks. It is not a prettier bridge than Sydney. It is a better bridge for its location.
The Swing Bridge and the Other Crossings
Between the High Level and the Tyne Bridge sits the Swing Bridge, built in 1876 on the site of the medieval bridge that had crossed the Tyne for centuries. The Swing Bridge rotates on a central pier to allow river traffic through – it is still operational and still occasionally swings. Armstrong Mitchell and Company built it as part of the project to deepen the Tyne for larger ships, which transformed the river’s commercial capacity in the late Victorian period.
The Queen Elizabeth II Bridge carries the Metro across the Tyne and was opened in 1981 as part of the Tyne and Wear Metro development. The King Edward VII Bridge, opened in 1906, carries the East Coast Main Line. The Redheugh Bridge, opened in 1983, is the westernmost of the city crossings and carries the heaviest road traffic. Each one solved a specific transport problem from a specific era.
The Millennium Bridge
The Gateshead Millennium Bridge, opened in 2001, is the newest and the most theatrical of the seven. Designed by Wilkinson Eyre, it tilts on a horizontal axis to allow river traffic through – the mechanism was described as a winking eye by its designers and the description stuck. It won the Stirling Prize in 2002. Its function is partly pedestrian crossing and partly urban design object, connecting the Gateshead cultural quarter to the Newcastle Quayside and completing the circuit that made the whole waterfront area viable as a destination.
Standing on the Quayside at night, with all seven crossings visible upstream and downstream, is one of the more spectacular views available in any British city. The stacking of different eras of engineering – Victorian iron, Edwardian steel, 1920s arch, postwar concrete, millennium glass and steel – is not planned as a museum exhibit, but it functions like one. The river made Newcastle. The bridges are the evidence.