A1-The Great North Road
The Millennium Bridge is so beautiful it deserves to be on the Great North Road - at least for pedestrians and cyclists.
But let's go back a couple of millennia. The Roman bridge, Pons Ælius, was built about 122AD in the position of the present swing bridge. It continued to be used, presumably periodically repaired, until 1248 when it was destroyed by fire. It was replaced by a stone bridge, completed in 1250, paid for by both the City of Newcastle and the Bishopric of Durham. A boundary stone, called St.Cuthbert's or the Blue Stone, marked the division between the Newcastle and Durham ends of the bridge. There was a stone tower and wooden drawbridge, removed in 1770 at the Gateshead end and shops and houses on both sides.
Daniel Defoe described it thus: "...a very strong and stately stone bridge of seven very great arches, rather larger than the arches of London Bridge; and the bridge is built into a street of houses also, as London Bridge is."
| But 150 years later John Smeaton surveyed the bridge and thought it in such poor repair that he recommended a complete rebuilding. Before his advice was acted upon nature forced the decision completely destroying three of the arches at the Gateshead end, houses and all, and one of the Newcastle arches. It took till 1781 before it was replaced with a new nine arched stone bridge that came to be known as the Georgian Bridge. The roadway was widened in 1810. Proposals for a high level bridge were mooted in 1771 but came to nothing, the Georgian Bridge was still a low level bridge, an impediment to all but small boats and a difficulty for road traffic, which had to descend Bottle Bank or the slightly gentler gradient of Church Street on the Gateshead side. |
The steep slope of Bottle Bank is seen climbing right of centre while the gentler gradient Church Street passes under the Tyne Bridge approach. |
On the north bank the slope is even more formidable. The road turned east past Sand Hill, climbing Butcher's Row, which became renamed Akenside Hill, before doubling back to climb Pilgrim Street. After the Lort Burn was filled in in 1785, coaches could take the slightly shorter route into the city centre up the Side and Dean Street.
In 1849 Queen Victoria opened the High Level Bridge, a composite of road and rail, just upstream of the old Tyne Bridge. The Great North Road now made its approach from Gateshead along Wellington Street, a continuation of West Street. This had formerly been called Back Lane, the Great North Road traffic travelling along High Street, but the opening of the High Level Bridge gave prominence to the western route as a more direct line from the New Durham Road. On the Newcastle side, the High Level Bridge allowed direct access to Bigg Market, encouraging through traffic to take a westerly route around the town centre along Percy Street.
The old Tyne Bridge, obstructing river traffic and perhaps becoming unsafe as a result of dredging was replaced by the Swing Bridge in 1876. This did not have a toll, unlike the High Level Bridge, so attracted a good deal of the traffic despite the descent and climb.
The Great North Road, now the A1, moved downstream again with the building of the new, high level, Tyne Bridge, opened by George V in 1928, its Gateshead approach cutting between the older Bottle Bank and Church Street. On the Newcastle side, the new Tyne Bridge a gave direct approach to the top end of Pilgrim Street, restoring Northumberland Street as the pre-eminent route for Northumberland and beyond.
In 1967 the Tyne Tunnel was opened and with it the Great North Road, now in the guise of the A1, lurched five miles downstream to Jarrow. But it was not for long. In 1990 the Blaydon Bridge was opened and with it the Western By-pass. The A1 now crossed the Tyne almost four miles upstream from Tyne Bridge, the road to the Tunnel being re-designated as the A19.
Try this for more about the Bridges
Lincolnshire
©Biff Vernon 2002
