The birthday bridge
According to the 2009 Whitby Calendar up on our wall, today is the centenary of Whitby’s swing bridge. There is some confusion over when the bridge was built but the official celebrations will be next month.
Sat 08 Aug 2009 Whitby Swing Bridge 100 Celebrations
Lots of events today to celebrate our grand old lady’s 100th birthday.
From 12.30 Swing Bridge paintings exhibition in Pannett Art Gallery.
Entertainments from the Tourist Information Centre to the Swing Bridge:
Cleveland Police Band, Marske Fishermens’ Choir, Saltburn Victorian Society,
Stakesby School Steel Band, Coblers Monday Folk Group, etc.
3.30 pm Civic leaders assemble at the bridge.
4.00 pm Bridge opens and William Riley lifeboat leads Regatta through.
Speech and Blessing as they sail past.
4.25 pm Bugle fanfare as plaques unveiled by Whitby Town Mayor and
Scarborough Borough Mayor. Fanfare, National Anthem,
Bridge closes for parade across the bridge.
Organised by Whitby and District Tourism Association, WTC, SBC & NYCC.
In the meantime, we decided to revisit the town on Monday and take in a bridge talk in the evening. Sadly, the museum closes Mondays, although we got a glimpse of it (and the famous Hand of Glory) on the way to the talk.
The talk was by the modern equivalent of the Borough Engineer and was somewhat technical in nature which was fine by me of course. It was all too brief and followed by a question and answer session which exposed much of the petty rivalries and frustrations of various eccentrics in the Town Civic Society. (My Mum said that two old dears next to her were indulging in a muttered bitchfest during the Q&A, much enlivening it for her in the process).
The bridge is in two parts which can rotate independently, although the northern leaf has to be moved first as there is a curved arc in the road where they move (and lock together with a pin mechanism underneath) and the curve is convex north, concave south. They are based on a cantilever principle, with a long slender roadway counterbalanced by a shorter, thicker section landside. The mechanisms are hydraulic rams driven by electric pumps, with fallback diesel engines as backup.
The bridge leaves are controlled by a panel on the bridge pavement underneath one of the streetlamps on each side. When all is well, the operator simply presses one button and the leaf moves automatically. Sometimes, though, things don’t work properly, in which case the bridge can be moved manually by pressing various buttons in the right sequence.
Reliability of the control systems has been a recurring problem, so they are in the process of upgrading all of the equipment to IP 68 standard, i.e. it could be fully immersed and still work OK.
One thing we weren’t told is how they decide to open the bridge. It is quite simple really, it is manned either side of high tide and opened on the hour or half hour by request of shipping- on VHF maritime radio.
Anyway, I have a few photos but I can’t seem to upload them at the moment, I’ll do it when I can.
Happy birthday, Whitby Swing Bridge.
One year, I’ll visit the Tyne Swing Bridge on heritage weekend. (I don’t know about this year, Uncle Nobhead is visiting again).
