410 



THE TYNE VALLEY AT NEWCASTLE. CHAP. XVIII. 



had discussed various methods of improving the com- 

 munication between the towns. Captain Brown, Telford, 

 and other engineers, were consulted, and the discussion 

 might have gone on for thirty years more, but for the 

 advent of railways, when the skill and enterprise to 

 which they gave birth speedily solved the difficulty, and 

 bridged the ravine. The locality adroitly took advan- 

 tage of the opportunity, and insisted on the provision 

 of a road for ordinary vehicles and foot-passengers in 

 addition to the railroad. In this circumstance originated 

 one of the striking peculiarities of the High Level 

 Bridge, which serves two purposes, being a railway 

 above and a carriage roadway underneath. 



The breadth of the river at the point of crossing is 

 515 feet, but the length of the bridge and viaduct 

 between the Gateshead station and the terminus on the 

 Newcastle side is about 4000 feet. It springs from 

 Pipe well Gate Bank, on the south, directly across to 

 Castle Garth, where, nearly fronting the bridge, stands 

 the fine old Norman keep of the New Castle, now 

 nearly eight hundred years old, and a little beyond it is 

 the spire of St. Nicholas Church, with its light and 

 graceful Gothic crown ; the whole forming a grand 

 architectural group of unusual historic interest. The 

 bridge passes completely over the roofs of the houses 

 which fill both sides of the valley ; and the extraordinary 

 height of the upper parapet, which is about 130 feet 

 above the bed of the river, 1 offers a prospect to the 



J Notwithstanding the extraordinary 

 height of the bridge, it is remarkable 

 that several persons have thrown 

 themselves from it into the river be- 

 neath, and survived. One tipsy arti- 

 san, for a wager of a pot of drink, 

 jumped from the parapet, and was 

 picked out of the water alive. Another 

 person afterwards attempted suicide in 

 the same manner, and was rescued. 

 But the most singular accident oc- 

 curred during the construction of the ! 



bridge, when a shipwright, at work 

 upon the timber platform, stepping 

 from the permanent to the temporary 

 work, set his foot upon a loose plank, 

 which canted over. Accidentally, 

 however, a huge nail had been driven 

 no one knew why into the end of 

 a crossbearer, on which the temporary 

 platform rested ; and this nail-head 

 catching the leg of the man's fustian 

 trowsers near the lower hem as he fell, 

 held him suspended, head downwards, 



