Wylam Railway Bridge (officially West Wylam Bridge, also known as Hagg Bank Bridge and locally as Points Bridge and Half-Moon Bridge) is a

footbridge A footbridge (also a pedestrian bridge, pedestrian overpass, or pedestrian overcrossing) is a bridge designed solely for pedestrians.''Oxford English Dictionary'' While the primary meaning for a bridge is a structure which links "two points at a ...

and former

railway bridge A bridge is a structure built to Span (engineering), span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or rail) without blocking the way underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, whic ...

crossing the

River Tyne The River Tyne is a river in North East England. Its length (excluding tributaries) is . It is formed by the North Tyne and the South Tyne, which converge at Warden Rock near Hexham in Northumberland at a place dubbed 'The Meeting of the Wate ...

Hagg Bank Hagg Bank or The Hagg is a small Northumberland enclave on the south bank of the River Tyne linked to Wylam by the Points Bridge. It consists of approximately 25 originally two-up, two-down brick terraces, built for housing railway and colliery ...

, approximately west of

Wylam Wylam is a village and civil parish in the county of Northumberland. It is located about west of Newcastle upon Tyne. It is famous for the being the birthplace of George Stephenson, one of the early railway pioneers. George Stephenson's Birth ...

Northumberland Northumberland () is a county in Northern England, one of two counties in England which border with Scotland. Notable landmarks in the county include Alnwick Castle, Bamburgh Castle, Hadrian's Wall and Hexham Abbey. It is bordered by land on ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

History

The bridge was originally built for the

Scotswood, Newburn and Wylam Railway The Scotswood, Newburn and Wylam Railway was a railway company that built the North Wylam branch or North Wylam loop on the former Newcastle & Carlisle Railway. The loop line opened between 1871 and 1876 and followed the former Wylam waggonway ...

, to connect the North Wylam Loop with the

Newcastle and Carlisle Railway The Newcastle & Carlisle Railway (N&CR) was an English railway company formed in 1825 that built a line from Newcastle upon Tyne on Britain's east coast, to Carlisle, on the west coast. The railway began operating mineral trains in 1834 between ...

. A number of bodies were involved in the bridge's construction: W G Laws engineered the bridge, W E Jackson & Co. of

Newcastle upon Tyne Newcastle upon Tyne ( RP: , ), or simply Newcastle, is a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. The city is located on the River Tyne's northern bank and forms the largest part of the Tyneside built-up area. Newcastle is ...

built the bridge's foundations and masonry, while

Hawks, Crawshay and Sons The Hawks family (c.1750 – 1889) was one of the most powerful British industrial dynasties of the Industrial Revolution, British Industrial Revolution. The Hawks owned several companies in Northern England and in the City of London (including H ...

Gateshead Gateshead () is a large town in northern England. It is on the River Tyne's southern bank, opposite Newcastle upon Tyne, Newcastle to which it is joined by seven bridges. The town contains the Gateshead Millennium Bridge, Millennium Bridge, Sage ...

manufactured the ironwork. The bridge cost £16,000 to build and was opened to rail traffic on 6 October 1876. Railway services over the bridge ended in 1968 when the line was closed as part of the

Beeching cuts The Beeching cuts (also Beeching Axe) was a plan to increase the efficiency of the nationalised British Rail, railway system in Great Britain. The plan was outlined in two reports: ''The Reshaping of British Railways'' (1963) and ''The Develop ...

. The trackwork was removed in 1972 and subsequently, in 1975, the bridge was converted into a

and

cyclepath Cycling infrastructure is all infrastructure cyclists are allowed to use. Bikeways include bike paths, bike lanes, cycle tracks, rail trails and, where permitted, sidewalks. Roads used by Motor vehicle, motorists are also cycling infrastructu ...

linking Wylam with the Tyne Riverside Country Park at Low Prudhoe. A model of the bridge can be seen at the nearby Wylam Railway Museum.

Design

The bridge's design came about because there was a need to avoid having piers in the river bed, because their construction would have disrupted shallow mine workings underneath. This single span () is constructed of three ribs each connected with diagonal braces to prevent cross strain and distortion caused by the wind. The track is suspended from these ribs by 19 girders forming 20 bays each wide. Another notable design consideration is the height of the track above water-level. During the great flood of 1771, the Tyne rose to above its normal summer levels. This led to the destruction of most of the bridges along the River Tyne, including those at

Hexham Hexham ( ) is a market town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in Northumberland, England, on the south bank of the River Tyne, formed by the confluence of the North Tyne and the South Tyne at Warden, Northumberland, Warden nearby, and ...

and the old Tyne Bridge at Newcastle. For this reason, the track is suspended above the river's typical level and greater than the flood level. It has been suggested that Wylam Railway Bridge might have been an inspiration for the designers of the much later

Tyne Bridge The Tyne Bridge is a through arch bridge over the River Tyne in North East England, linking Newcastle upon Tyne and Gateshead. The bridge was designed by the engineering firm Mott, Hay and Anderson, who later designed the Forth Road Bridge, ...

and the

Sydney Harbour Bridge The Sydney Harbour Bridge is a steel through arch bridge in Sydney, spanning Port Jackson, Sydney Harbour from the Sydney central business district, central business district (CBD) to the North Shore (Sydney), North Shore. The view of the bridg ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

. However, there are some major differences in design between this bridge and those at Newcastle and Sydney. Perhaps the greatest difference is the load taken by the abutments of the bridge. In the cases of the Tyne and Sydney Harbour bridges the abutments or "pylons" bear no load from the single span arch and are aesthetic. The arch of this bridge, however, is anchored into the abutments and as such directly bears the lateral load of the arch. This prevents distortion and a possible "road-wave" forming in front of a traversing train or vehicle. Wylam Railway Bridge is claimed to be one of the earliest rib arch bridges in the world and as such is grade II* listed citing the bridge as "...said to be the earliest use of this form of construction to carry railway".

Renovation

In 1997 the bridge was re-painted at a cost of £224,000 with the support of £157,000 from the Heritage Lottery Fund. This work included removing the old lead-based paint and repainting with lead free alternatives in the bridges original colour scheme.

References

{{River item box , River =

, upstream =

Ovingham Bridge Ovingham Bridges are a pair of side-by-side vehicle and pedestrian bridges across the River Tyne linking Ovingham and Prudhoe in Northumberland, England. Following a lengthy refurbishment programme by Northumberland County Council, Ovingham Br ...

s , upsub = Road, pedestrians and {{UK NCN route, route=72 , downstream = Wylam Bridge , type = bridge , table = end , location = NZ111642 Bridges completed in 1876 Railway bridges in Northumberland Crossings of the River Tyne Pedestrian bridges in England Through arch bridges in the United Kingdom Former railway bridges in the United Kingdom

Railway Bridge A bridge is a structure built to Span (engineering), span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or rail) without blocking the way underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, whic ...

Grade II* listed railway bridges and viaducts