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

    ReplyDelete