The High Level Bridge was opened 161 years ago for the York, Newcastle and Berwick Railway, it originally carried 3 tracks on the upper deck with a roadway on a lower level. The bridge has six spans of cast iron arches tied with wrought iron strings supporting the railway 120ft above the river Tyne.
Modern trains and road traffic weigh many times more than when the bridge was opened yet this construction is almost entirely in its original condition. The only change is that the tracks have been reduced to two. The bridge was built close to the line of the Roman bridge and within sight of the Central Station and Stephenson’s Locomotive Works. The Bridge is Listed Grade One and there is some irony in the fact that the building of the railway demolished much of the ancient Castle of Newcastle an obliterated a 12th Century Castle at Berwick Station. Before the opening of the Royal Border Bridge by Queen Victoria, Robert Stephenson was offered and refused a knighthood; this may have been because of his respect for his father, George Stephenson.