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THE BRIDGES of THE TYNE

Its final destruction in 1771 was due to a flood which exceeded any that had previously occurred.

" At midnight between Saturday and Sunday, the 16th and 17th November, the river had risen to a height of about nine feet above high water spring tides, and filled most of the arches of the bridge. The Close, Sandhill, and Quayside were deep under water, and vessels floated over the surface of Newcastle Quay and remained upon it when the flood subsided.

Early on Sunday morning the middle arch of the bridge fell, and in the afternoon a second and third were so much shattered that two more fell a few days afterwards."

After the disastrous flood of 1771, which destroyed all the bridges of the Tyne except that at Corbridge, an arched stone bridge was built on the same site as the Roman and the 'Mediaeval bridge. It was completed in 1781 and a toll was charged to pay for its upkeep.

The Suspension Bridge at Scotswood was opened in 1531. It excels all the other bridges in the beauty of its design and the slender grace of its span. At the time of its construction the district round gave it a fairer setting than it now enjoys.

Perhaps no invention in the history of the world has so altered the face of countries and continents, and brought about changes in the lives of their populations so great and so rapid, as the invention of the locomotive engine by George Stephenson,

Only a hundred years have passed since the first train to carry passengers ran from Stockton to Darlington, and the engine then used may still be seen in Darlington station. But during that century the rate of progress, in man's command over nature, has been ten times as fast as in the period (1700 years) from Hadrian to Stephenson. In 1838 steamships were already beginning to conquer the ocean, but Stephenson's engine began the conquest of the land. The steam locomotive displaced the stage coach, and the carrying of goods by road, just as the petrol engine in our own day has " given a new life to the old roads, and opened out the pathways of the air."

The progress of towns now came to depend chiefly upon the railway, and, as trains could not cross the Tyne at water level, engineers were faced by a new and serious problem.

By the year 1839 Newcastle was linked up by rail to Carlisle, and the first railway bridge at Scotswood was built. In 1844, Gateshead at Redheugh, was connected by rail with Darlington. Another line joined Newcastle with Berwick. But connection between these lines had to be made in an awkward roundabout journey by Scotswood.

Between Gateshead and Newcastle yawned the deep cleft of the Tyne. No such space had ever before been spanned. Was engineering skill and science able to make a crossing at the high level needed for a railway ? Had the answer been " No," much of the importance now enjoyed by Newcastle and Gateshead would have passed to the place at which a bridge was found possible.



Opening of The Tyne Bridge page 9
from the book of the opening of the River Tyne Bridge in October 1928 by King George and Queen Mary

Tyne Bridge Opening Book Pages
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16

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