Tyne Bridge
The Tyne Bridge is one of the greatest symbols of Tyneside’s industrial
pride and engineering prowess.
Built in 1928, the Tyne Bridge was a major engineering triumph in its day and remains a miracle of modern design 75 years on.
Built from steel and granite, the bridge has come to symbolise all that is best about the Tyneside industrial tradition and its history of engineering and innovation.
It was back in the late 19th century that the city fathers started talking about building a new Tyne Bridge to ease traffic congestion and provide a splendid new river crossing.
But it wasn’t until 1924 that plans to build today's bridge started to take shape.
Work began in August 1925 and it took just three years to complete the giant structure.
The bridge was built like a ship, using shipbuilding techniques with rivets and panels which were welded together.
As the bridge arches started to appear, it was clear that this was a grand feat of engineering prowess.
The bridge builders risked their lives high above the waters of the Tyne, scaling heights and structures with the agility of Spiderman.
Perched over 80 feet above the river, the men worked without the benefit of safety harnesses and ropes. Their agility and ability to work at great heights was second to none.
Despite the dangers of the building work, only one worker died in what was to prove a mammoth task.
Nathaniel Collins was a scaffold erector, a very dangerous job. He fell a hundred feet from the bridge and hit the water, fracturing his skull.
His family remembers that he had worked as a ship's plater and then served in the First World War. "He was a man who knew no fear."
As far as we know none of the men who built the bridge are alive today but we do have the testament of their relatives.