browseBuilding the Tyne Bridge
Unknown (Photographer)
Text drawn from Side Gallery archive documentation:
These photographs of the building of the George V Bridge, known as the Tyne Bridge, are the work of an unknown photographer and were taken between 1925 and 1928.
The number of bridges over the tidal Tyne increased dramatically under the impact of the Industrial Revolution on Tyneside during the nineteenth century. It has increased still further with the post-industrial redevelopment of Newcastle and Gateshead. The Tyne Bridge, originally proposed by the Newcastle and Gateshead Corporation at least in part as a way of addressing the chronic unemployment situation, became an icon. The design was prepared by Mott Hay and Anderson, a smaller version of the one the company had created for the Sydney Harbour Bridge, although the Tyne Bridge was completed first. The contractors were Dorman Long of Middlesbrough and work commenced in August 1925. The two sides of the arch eventually met on 25 February 1928, insertion of the final alignment pins being accompanied by the firing of maroons and the breaking of flags and the bridge was opened by King George V on 10 October 1928.
The King’s speech, his first ‘talkie’, was recorded by Movietone News. A special radio programme entitled The Bridge of Tyne, a Fantasy for Radio also celebrated the event. School children were given a day’s holiday and were presented with a commemorative booklet. During the following days, Newcastle and Gateshead witnessed the greatest traffic jams they had ever seen as traffic sought to use the new bridge rather than the High Level and Swing Bridges.
Building the Tyne Bridge
Full Original Exhibition Text by Stafford Linsley, 1980
The number of bridges over the tidal Tyne increased dramatically under the impact of the Industrial Revolution on Tyneside during the nineteenth century. But only three out of the eleven bridges which span the Tyne between Wylam and the sea, were built in the twentieth century. Of these three, the most significant was the Tyne Bridge which worthily took its place amongst the other historic bridges of the Tyne.
Its function was to augment the existing high level road and tram bridges over the Tyne at Newcastle, and the original idea put forward in 1921 by T.M. Webster, a Civil Engineer, was soon backed by the Newcastle and Gateshead Corporation. They hoped to obtain a 65 per cent from central government and saw the construction of the bridge as going some way towards reducing the chronic unemployment situation on Tyneside.
The Tyne Improvement Commissioners were involved in certain of the design and construction parameters. They insisted, as they still do, on full navigational clearance and no river piers. They probably also insisted that no constructional materials should be raised from the river and consequently, special and quite dramatic methods of construction were used. They also let it be known that they hoped: “eventually to have the swing bridge removed and also to have the High Level Bridge rebuilt with longer spans to ease the obstruction to river traffic at this point.”
The bridge design was prepared by Mott Hay and Anderson, the contractors being Dorman Long of Middlesbrough, and work commenced in August 1925. Massive concrete foundations for the towers were sunk to the bedrock while the approach roads to the main arch were being constructed, the steel road deck which immediately leads to the arch being supported upon pairs of octagonal section, steel-clad columns. A 'rolling-out' system of construction was used for the deck, whereby a 41ft. 6in. length of decking was winched sufficiently out towards the river to enable another identical length to be brought up behind and riveted to the first. The pair were then winched out and successive lengths riveted up until the full continuous span was out.
For the construction of the 531ft. main arch span, the specification that no material was to be raised from the river demanded a method of construction which aroused great interest. From the hinges near the foot of each of the tall landtowers, the first two panel sections of the arch were placed in position, being propped up by timber falsework and a temporary steel cradle. A 5 ton derrick crane was assembled on the second panel and this was used to assemble a 20 ton erection crane, also supported on the panelling; the whole assemble was then tied back to the road decking by steel cables before the temporary works were removed. Extra arch panels were then lifted into place using the 20 ton crane which had to be repeatedly repositioned using the 5 ton derrick for its dismantling and re-erection, further up the arch; in its turn, the 5 ton derrick also had to be repositioned. This process was carried out simultaneously from each side of the river, additional back-stay cables giving the necessary support. In this way the two sides of the arch eventually met on 25 February 1928, insertion of the final alignment pins being accompanied by the firing of maroons and the breaking of flags.
The suspension of the road deck from the arch had also been proceeding and its completion was followed by the addition of the road and footpath surfaces, the balustrades and the overhead tram wiring, such that it was possible for the official opening by King George V on 10 October 1928.
The King’s speech was recorded by Movietone News, this being his first ‘talkie’, and a special radio programme entitled ‘The Bridge of Tyne, a Fantasy for Radio’ also celebrated the event. School children were given a day's holiday and were presented with a commemorative booklet. During the following days, Newcastle and Gateshead witnessed the greatest traffic jams they had ever seen as traffic sought to use the new bridge rather than the High Level and Swing Bridges, a situation made worse by the fact that widening of the railway arch over the road at the Newcastle end of the bridge had not been completed and all the traffic, including trams, had to be diverted through two narrow railway arches alongside. Once this bottleneck was removed, the situation improved considerably, although congestion on the Tyne Bridge is now once again a twice daily feature of the Tyneside commuter’s life.
Note: The historian Stafford Linsley originally brought the Dorman Long album of Building the Tyne Bridge photographs to Amber. The images seen here were copied from that album.