The Anonymous Widower

The Tees Bridges and Barrage

Although the bridges across the Tees at Middlesbrough, are not as numerous as those across the Tyne at Newcastle, they are more impressive and also include a unique flood protection barrier.

Travelling down the river fropm the mouth pf the River Tees, the bridges are as follows

The Transporter Bridge is one of the most unusual, unique and impressive bridges in England.

Foot Passengers on the Transporter Bridge

On Saturday, the bridge was closed, but they were still allowing foot passengers to cross over in the gondola slung from the bridge.  A scene from Billy Elliot was shot in the gondola. So we just took a few photos and moved on.

It could be argued that the Newport Bridge is just as unique as its more famous brother.  It is a vertical lift bridge and only one of four in the United Kingdom.

The Newport Lifting Bridge

The bridge is no longer raised, as large ships rarely go past it these days. It must have been a marvellous sight to see it being raised.

The Tees Barrier is many things to different people; a road and foot bridge, a white water canoe slalom course, a flood barrier a barge lock and even a test facility for turbines and a fish ladder to allow salmon to pass upstream.

The Tees Barrage

I liked the barrier a lot.  It just shows how if you use your imagination, you can create something that serves a number of purposes well.

The Infinity Bridge was the last one we saw and is a foot and cycle bridge in a very clean  design.

The Infinity Bridge

All of these bridges can be visited by just walking. There is a detailed walk on the AA’s web site.

August 9, 2010 Posted by AnonW | Transport/Travel | Engineering, Middlesbrough, Tees Newport Bridge | 3 Comments