Photographs By Area

▼

Swing Bridge

The Swing Bridge is a swing bridge over the River Tyne, England, connecting Newcastle upon Tyne and Gateshead, and lying between the Tyne Bridge and the High Level Bridge. It is a Grade II* listed structure.

The Swing Bridge stands on the site of the Old Tyne Bridges of 1270 and 1781, and probably of the Roman Pons Aelius.

The previous bridge on the site was demolished in 1868 to enable larger ships to move upstream to William Armstrong's works. The hydraulic Swing Bridge was designed and paid for by Armstrong, with work beginning in 1873. It was first used for road traffic on 15 June 1876 and opened for river traffic on 17 July 1876. At the time of construction it was the largest swing bridge ever built. The construction cost was £240,000.

The hydraulic power still used to move the bridge is today derived from electrically driven pumps. These feed a hydraulic accumulator sunk into a 60 ft (18 m) shaft below the bridge; the water is then released under pressure which runs the machinery to turn the bridge. The mechanism used for this is still the same machinery originally installed by Armstrong.

It has an 281 ft (85.6 m) cantilevered span with a central axis of rotation able to move through 360° to allow vessels to pass on either side of it.

The busiest year of operation was 1924 when the bridge was rotated 6,000 times unlike current use where it is only required to turn occasionally to allow yachts and pleasure craft to pass by and on the first Wednesday of each month as a maintenance exercise.

The Bridge featured in the final episode and climax of the educational series Geordie Racer from Look and Read when the villains became stranded on the bridge after a robbery.

The bridge was renovated in 2018 at a cost of £200,000. The restoration involved 25,000 hours of work and 10,000 screws were used in repairs.

Description courtesy of Wikipedia.



20th December 2023







30th May 2023







13th July 2022







23rd March 2022






Swing Bridge Pillars.

On both the Newcastle side and Gateshead side of the bridge, there are four large stone pillars adjacent to its footpaths. They are all the same apart from one on the Gateshead side, which has been cut in half from top to bottom as it used to butt up to a building which has since been demolished.



North East Pillars.







North West Pillars.




South East Pillars.




South West Pillars.





12th August 2021







21st September 2020







3rd August 2020








16th June 2020










22nd June 2019










16th December 2018









29th June 2018














30th May 2018











26th September 2017














18th July 2017









24th May 2016











11th June 2015







10th June 2015







10th April 2015








3rd December 2014










6th August 2014










1st July 2014

















26th May 2014











27th November 2013










21st October 2012








16th January 2012









9th January 2012








28th September 2011








30th September 2010








10th September 2009







23rd June 2009










13th October 2008










26th September 2008








13th September 2008







12th September 2008





The engine room.





4th June 2008










7th March 2008











11th February 2008










10th October 2007







A short video showing the bridge in action.





More Information:
My other photos of bridges on the Tyne:

2 comments:

  1. Anonymous17 November 2006 at 19:30

    What a fantastic page of facts, pics and a vid clip of my favourite river Tyne bridge! Sadly to say I've never seen it swing in person, at least not yet.

    Excellent site all round :) Do you have any plans to do a history or fact list on the other bridges?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Pete Loud25 April 2010 at 09:16

    Check out this high resolution shot of The Swing Bridge,
    http://www.peterloud.co.uk/photos/Newcastle/Nc_4.html

    ReplyDelete