With its mould-breaking design, the Gateshead Millennium Bridge - or the 'blinking eye' bridge as it's affectionately known - is the world's first rotating bridge, turning on pivots on both sides of the river to form a spectacular gateway arch.

Designed by Wilkinson Eyre Architects and engineers Gifford and Partners, and built by a Gateshead-based construction company, Harbour and General, this unique award-winning bridge has attracted worldwide attention.

It's not only eye catching - the bridge provides a footpath and cycle-way linking ambitious new arts and cultural developments, such as a museum and music hall at Gateshead and Newcastle Quays. It has even been described as opening like a giant eyelid!

"Pictures of the River Tyne's latest landmark have been beamed all around the world on television from America to Australia and from Norway to Nepal."
The Evening Chronicle, Newcastle

Facts and Figures
The project cost £22 million (£9.2million of that was supplied by the Millennium Commission).

It weighs more than a massive 850 tonnes - that's enough steel to make 64 double-decker buses.

It has a total span of 413 feet (126 metres).

The design is so efficient that it only costs £3.60 in electricity every time it opens!

The pivoting systems demands that the bridge was manufactured precisely to a tolerance of just 3mm - about the size of an ant!

And it even tidies up after itself - litter dropped on the bridge will automatically roll into traps at each end every time the bridge opens.