Tyne Bridge (also known as New Tyne Bridge)

The Tyne Bridge (also known as the New Tyne Bridge) is a single-span steel arch road bridge built between 1925 and 1928. It was designed by engineers Mott, Hay and Anderson of Westminster, with abutment towers designed by Robert Burns Dick. The bridge was constructed by Dorman, Long & Co Ltd of Middlesbrough under the supervision of Charles Mitchell, with Ralph Freeman serving as consulting engineer.

The bridge is constructed from a steel arch with steel columns and stone walls supporting the road approaches. The pylons feature solid concrete abutments with steel and concrete towers clad in granite, and the bridge parapet is cast iron.

The structure is a single-span, two-hinged steel arch with a pylon at either end, carrying a suspended deck, with land approaches extending to either side. The steel arch consists of two main mild steel parabolic trusses, each formed from two arched ribs 14 metres apart between centres, connected by a single system of web members with Warren-type bracing comprising simple diagonals. The arch spans 162 metres and rises to a height of 55 metres. It supports a 17-metre-wide suspended deck positioned some 26 metres above high water level, with cantilevered footways on either side. Within the arch, the deck is supported by cross-girders suspended from the trusses through a series of steel hangers. On the approaches, the deck rests on spandrel columns rising from the top of the trusses. Beneath the deck are enclosed ducts containing water and gas mains and electrical services.

The arch is secured by 12-inch (30-centimetre) diameter pins to a land abutment on either side of the River Tyne, which bear the thrust of the arch and are carried down to bedrock with solid concrete bases.

Above each abutment stands a steel and concrete rectangular-plan tower faced in granite. Each comprises a five-storey central section with taller projections to the east and west sides. The towers display neoclassical detailing at the tops and very tall arched recesses to the outer faces containing a continuous sequence of alternating windows and aprons, with bracketed balconies. They also exhibit Art Deco influence in their overall massing and the plinth-level door cases featuring oversized keystones. Original doors are mostly retained, though original metal-framed windows have largely been replaced with timber versions, with the exception of three ground floor windows to the south tower where original metal frames remain.

The approach spans are carried partly on earth filling between retaining walls and partly on continuous plate girders supported by two pairs of octagonal steel columns on the Newcastle side, skewed to accommodate the street plan below, and a single pair in line on the Gateshead side. The panelled cast-iron parapet on the arch and approach spans, with lamp standards mounted at intervals, was manufactured by Macfarlane & Co of Glasgow.

The central part of each tower was originally intended to serve as warehouse space, which remained unused. Passenger lifts in the west projection and pedestrian stairs and goods lifts in the east projection provided access from ground level to bridge deck level through vestibules at both levels.

In the north tower, the warehouse section contains a skeletal steel framework of joists, main beams and supporting columns for intended floors that were never installed. The public stair hall features a concrete dado and staircase with stick balusters, an octagonal newel post with an ornate finial, and a ramped hand rail, all of cast iron. The staircase rises to deck level where an arched entrance opens into a rectangular lobby with concrete coving, a cast-iron lantern and an original exit and entrance fitted with original double doors and a decorative fanlight of semi-circular tracery. The public lift hall contains ground floor and deck level lobbies, each with cast-iron lanterns above each of two sets of double, panelled lift doors with monolithic granite surrounds; one set of lift doors to each lobby retains original 36-pane leaded upper lights. The upper lobby includes an opening with identical doors and fanlight to that of the deck-level stair hall, and features an Art Deco-style sunburst design. One of the lifts houses an original lift mechanism within a small cupboard. The lower lobby retains part of what is considered to be an original Art Deco mural featuring steamers. The two original passenger lifts remain within the lift shaft, each with timber panelled interiors featuring decorative lozenge and oval detailing and metal lattice doors. A small room to the rear of the upper lift lobby retains the original lift motors, marked 'The Express Lift Company, London'.

The south tower retains a similar skeletal framework to the north tower and contains shafts for lifts that were never installed. The public stair hall, staircase and vestibule are similarly detailed to those in the north tower.