The Swing Bridge is a

swing bridge A swing bridge (or swing span bridge) is a movable bridge that can be rotated horizontally around a vertical axis. It has as its primary structural support a vertical locating pin and support ring, usually at or near to its center of gravit ...

over 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, Northumberland, Warden near Hexham in Northumberland at a place dubbed 'The ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

, connecting

Newcastle upon Tyne Newcastle upon Tyne, or simply Newcastle ( , Received Pronunciation, RP: ), is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. It is England's northernmost metropolitan borough, located o ...

and

Gateshead Gateshead () is a town in the Gateshead Metropolitan Borough of Tyne and Wear, England. It is on the River Tyne's southern bank. The town's attractions include the twenty metre tall Angel of the North sculpture on the town's southern outskirts, ...

, and lying between the

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 High Level Bridge. It is a

Grade II* listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, H ...

structure.

History

The Swing Bridge stands on the site of the Old Tyne Bridges of 1270 and 1781, and probably of the original Roman Pons Aelius bridge. 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 A hydraulic accumulator is a pressure storage reservoir in which an Incompressible flow, incompressible hydraulic fluid is held under pressure that is applied by an external Prime mover (engine), source of mechanical energy. The external source can ...

sunk into a 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 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. In May 2016, a fire broke out on the pontoon under the bridge. Around was affected by the blaze which was tackled by two fire crews and a fire boat. 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. Its reopening in August 2021 was marred by technical issues which saw the bridge unable to swing.

References

External links

* {{River item box , River =

, upstream = High Level Bridge , upsub = {{UK road, B1307 and

Durham Coast Line The Durham Coast Line is an approximately railway line running between Newcastle railway station, Newcastle and in North East England. Heavy rail passenger services, predominantly operated Northern Trains, and some freight services operate ove ...

, downstream =

, downsub = {{UK road, A167 and National Cycle Route 725 , type = bridge , thisis = Swing Bridge , location = NZ251637 Swing bridges in England Bridges in Gateshead Bridges in Newcastle upon Tyne Grade II* listed buildings in Tyne and Wear Bridges completed in 1876 Crossings of the River Tyne Grade II* listed bridges in England