Brockley Whins, railway bridge

The bridge once carried the Stanhope and Tyne Railway over the River Don. The railway was opened in 1834. It was the first public railway in the region and was designed to take passengers from South Shields to the Durham turnpike road, and to take minerals from County Durham to staiths on the Tyne. The line was later taken over by the North Eastern Railway and became their Pontop and South Shields Branch. The well-built stone bridge abutments date to the 1830s when the railway was first opened, but the metal plate across the abutments has been renewed at a later date. LOCAL LIST