80th Anniversary of the Tyne & Wear Bridges

80 Years of Tyne & Wear Bridges railway collectable with Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Tyne Bridge aniversary postmark 08.01.2008.

There are 22 main bridges that cross the River Tyne, the most famous of which is the Tyne Bridge, opened by HM King George V and Queen Mary in 1928, designed by the engineering firm Mott, Hay and Anderson, who later designed the Forth Road Bridge. The bridge is a fine example of a compression arch suspended-deck bridge which cost £700,000 to build! A make-over of the bridge in the 2000s cost £1.8m, it's not worth thinking about the full cost to build a bridge like that nowadays.