The Georgian Tyne Bridge

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The Georgian Tyne Bridge opened in 1781, a decade after the destruction of the medieval bridge. This photo is one of several restored for my Tyne Bridge book. Here's a thread about the Georgian Bridge, the Great Fire, Blind Tommy, and Tyneside as "a place of bridges". 🧵

The Georgian Tyne Bridge was a low stone crossing with nine arches. It occupied the position of the current Swing Bridge. The Courant said the "noble structure" was "beyond example" and should be "exalted above every other in the kingdom". But it would soon be obsolete.

The era of the Georgian Tyne Bridge coincided with the rise of Tyneside's most popular pre-football sport—rowing. Crowds used the bridge as a grandstand to watch big races. Harry Clasper was the Alan Shearer of 19th-century Tyneside, and the bridge was his Gallowgate End.

Meet Tommy Ferens, a popular Tyneside character who stood on the Georgian Tyne Bridge from the age of 15 engaging passers-by and asking for spare change. Unable to work, he was known as "Blind Tommy" or, more commonly, "Tommy on the Bridge".

By the time Tommy stood on the Georgian Tyne Bridge, it was known as "the Low Bridge". That's because it was dominated by Robert Stephenson's grand High Level Bridge, which opened in 1849 and is still in (limited) use today.

In October 1854, the Great Fire of Newcastle and Gateshead killed 53 people, injured more than 500, and destroyed entire streets on both sides of the river. Huge crowds gathered on both the Georgian Tyne Bridge and High Level Bridge to watch the devastation.

The Georgian Tyne Bridge became a victim of Tyneside's Victorian progress. It was too narrow for increasing road traffic and too low for busy river traffic. So, in the 1860s, it was demolished and replaced. In the meantime, a wooden Temporary Tyne Bridge spanned the Tyne.

The Georgian Tyne Bridge was replaced in 1876 by William Armstrong's hydraulic Swing Bridge, which still exists (but no longer swings).

Tommy Ferens moved his pitch to the Swing Bridge and stood there until his death in 1907. By then there were four bridges linking Newcastle and Gateshead—the High Level, Swing, King Edward and Redheugh. Tyneside had become a "place of bridges"—and there were more to come.

The Georgian Tyne Bridge is not as well known as the medieval Old Tyne Bridge or the current Tyne Bridge, but it does feature on the cover of one of Tyneside's most famous rock albums, local heroes Lindisfarne's 1971 chart-topping "Fog on The Tyne".

There's lots more about the Tyne Bridge's predecessors (and lots more about Tommy Ferens) in my book, which is out on 3 Nov: tynebridgebook.com/ If this thread was interesting, please Like/Retweet the first tweet. And check out my threads on the earlier Tyne Bridges.