September 17, 2001
In northeastern England’s ceremonial county of Tyne and Wear, a bridge for pedestrians and cyclists in the city and metropolitan borough of Newscastle upon Tyne (more simply known as Newcastle) was opened to the public. This bridge, crossing the River Tyne, serves as a link between the major arts and cultural center in the town of Gateshead on the river’s southern bank and the Quayside area of Newcastle on the northern bank.
The origins of this structure can be traced to 1996, when the Gateshead Council sponsored a competition to design a bridge connecting the town with Newcastle. There were more than 150 entries for the competition, with the winner ultimately being the proposal jointly submitted by the architectural practice WilkinsonEyre and the structural engineering firm Gifford & Partners.
A final design for the bridge was submitted in 1997 to the Millennium Commission, an independent public body that had been set up to provide funds to communities throughout the United Kingdom for efforts commemorating the start of the third millennium. (This commission remained in service until 2006.) Other sources of financial assistance for the new bridge included the European Regional Development Fund, English Partnerships, and East Gateshead Regeneration Budget.
Measuring 413 feet (126 meters) in length, the Gateshead Millennium Bridge holds the record as the world’s first tilt bridge. This type of structure is a type of moveable bridge that – in contrast to a drawbridge — rotates rather than lifts or bends. The Gateshead Millenium Bridge has water-powered hydraulic ram pumps on each side that tilt this structure as needed to allow watercraft on the river below to safely pass through that area.
Construction on the Gateshead Millennium Bridge – also called the Blinking Eye Bridge or Winking Eye Bridge because of both its appearance and tilting mechanism – was completed on June 28, 2001. A little over three-and-a-half months later, approximately 30,000
people showed up for the opening of the bridge.
At two o’ clock on that Monday afternoon, the barriers on the bridge were removed so that onlookers could finally make their way across it. “Many stopped to gaze in awe at the picturesque views,” reported the Newcastle-based Evening Chronicle (since renamed the Chronicle). “Some stopped to praise the remarkable feat of engineering.”
The first 500 people crossing the bridge each received a commemorative medal from the Gateshead Council for the occasion. Pat Engleby was among those people. “It was a tremendous experience,” she said about that walk in a subsequent interview with BBC News.
The festivities marking the debut of the Gateshead Millennium Bridge continued into that weekend with not only the switching on of this structure’s computerized lighting system but also everything from musical concerts to a one-mile (1.6-kilometer) running race. “The weekend has been a spectacular success, and the musical and sporting events were a fitting tribute to the new bridge,” Gateshead Council leader George Gill told BBC News. “The lighting is superb and really impressed the crowds.”
On May 7 of the following year, the Gateshead Millennium Bridge was formally dedicated by Queen Elizabeth II. In the time since it first went into service, this bridge has received numerous awards. These include the Outstanding Structure Award from the International Association for Bridge and Structural Engineering in 2005. In addition, the bridge has been featured in the BBC television series 55 Degrees North and the sports drama film Goal! (The accompanying photo of the Gateshead Millennium Bridge was taken in 2012.)
Photo Credit: Barbara Carr / Boat sailing under the Millennium Bridge / CC BY-SA 2.0
For more information on the Gateshead Millennium Bridge, please check out https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gateshead_Millennium_Bridge
Transportation History 
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