The United Kingdom?EUR??,,????'???s Gateshead Millennium Bridge over the River Tyne, with a span of 413 feet, is the world?EUR??,,????'???s first ?EUR??,,????'??tipping?EUR??,,????'?? bridge. Conceived by Wilkinson Eyre Architects (WEA) and structural engineers Gifford and Partners, the bridge tips over to allow river traffic to pass underneath. WEA sometimes refers it to the action of an eyelid opening and closing with the two pivot points at the corners of the eye. Powered by six massive hydraulic rams the bridge has an almost balletic appearance when it opens and is spookily silent in operation.

Located over the River Tyne, it connects the two cities of Gateshead and Newcastle for pedestrians and cyclists. The River Tyne is famous for its bridges with the Tyne Bridge its most famous to date, being the baby brother of the Sydney Harbor Bridge and designed by the same engineers. Constructed at a then cost of $2.4 million, it opened before Sydney in 1928. Newcastle is also famous as being the place where Joseph W. Swan invented the light bulb – before Thomas Edison.

Jonathan Speirs and Associates (JSA) were appointed in November 1997 as the Lighting Architects for the project. The project cost $35 million with the lighting budget coming in at almost $305,000.

The lighting elements are as follows: the arch, the underside of the deck, the pedestrian walkway and cycle deck, the dividing hedge and the caissons.

Constructed in the river 19.5 feet off each riverbank is a 115-foot long caisson that houses the machinery that operates the hydraulic system. Sitting atop the caisson is a box utilizing structural glass ribs to hold up the glass enclosure giving a very simple and lightweight impression.

It went without saying that the arch had to be lit. The greatest concern of the lighting designers was the avoidance of light pollution. We did not want to lose any light up into the sky or to provide a glare source from any of the many elevated positions around the bridge.

Recently a major bridge in Scotland has been re-lit and has received extremely negative feedback from the astronomical community as a result of the considerable light pollution that emanates from it.

The second most important aspect of the bridge in our terms was the underside of the bridge deck. The River Tyne flows incredibly slowly resulting in an almost mirror like appearance of the water surface.

The presentation to the client proposed that it should be lit, even though when the bridge is at rest the underside is only just visible when you are in the immediate vicinity. In many ways you ?EUR??,,????'??discover?EUR??,,????'?? this aspect of the bridge when you approach the bridge from either end. We were interested in the reflections and how the bridge would appear when it was in the open position.

Unfortunately the Harbor Master, (who it transpires has no higher authority to whom an appeal is possible), decreed that there should be no light on the bridge when it is open to ensure that ships are not distracted when passing below. The same gentleman also decreed that there should be bridge defenses pilled into the riverbed with floating booms to ensure that no ships strike the bridge. This is despite the design team clearly proving that any ship will run aground before striking the structure. This decree cost the project $3 million and the rather ugly looking defenses are apparently now referred to by the witty locals as the ?EUR??,,????'??Harbor Master?EUR??,,????'???s Piles.?EUR??,,????'??

Despite this ruling we still felt that the underside needed to be lit to give that extra dimension after dark and use the river as our foil. Ease of maintenance was crucial and therefore access to any sources below had to be through the cycle deck. The intention was to use a narrow beam source to light along the structural rib and also then illuminate the belly of the pedestrian deck. The reflections are so good that any faulty lamps can be spotted by looking at the reflections in the water.

These provide a perfect opportunity to sit and admire the view looking west towards the other bridges and the heart of the two cities framed by the new arch.

The pedestrian deck surface is a black non-slip material and is not a particularly good reflective surface. To maximize the views outwards it was felt that a string of recessed white LED luminaires recessed into the deck would define and delineate the route as well as giving some illumination to the balustrading. These marker lights were paired at every second balustrade.

The cycle deck is an open aluminum grating, unfortunately it is not as open as we would have liked. Generally as you cross the bridge it appears solid but contrasts beautifully in its silver appearance with the black pedestrian deck. At night, if you look directly down you can see through the cycle decking. The reality is that pedestrians use both sides of the bridge. The paired LED?EUR??,,????'???s locate into the same access panel as the under deck lights.

The other lighting element that contributes to the lit appearance of the walkway is the illumination of the central ?EUR??,,????'??hedge?EUR??,,????'??. Constructed in stainless steel into a three-dimensional form the steel sheets have linear perforated slots. The lighting idea was a simple one, simply to make this form glow from within.

At the center of the bridge there are a series of upside down U-shaped balustrades that demarcate the change in level as well as aiding people stepping from one level to the other. We located more white LED luminaires in the deck to define these handrails. The undersides of the handrails catch light from these sources in a way that we had not truly appreciated at the design stage.

These two elements provide almost no measurable light level on the surface of the decks. As most of us appreciate, illuminance is not everything. People walking across the bridge feel comfortable, safe and enjoy the experience.

At the gates to the bridge, required to protect people when the bridge is opening and closing, are recessed in-ground luminaires that were customised to provide a two-signal indicator. Green LED?EUR??,,????'???s feed end emitting fibre optic grouped into a go arrow symbol; red LED?EUR??,,????'???s feed fibre again but this time it is a no entry symbol. These change automatically depending upon the operation of the bridge.

The essence of the lighting concept was simplicity – to reinforce the form of the structure after dark and create a powerful nighttime icon for Gateshead and Tyneside.

Jonathan Speirs and Associates are a lighting design practice based in Edinburgh, Scotland and with Speirs and Major, of London, comprise the Lighting Architects Group.

The Gateshead Millennium Bridge has been awarded many awards for its design including many lighting awards including:

The 2002 International Association of Lighting Designers Award of Excellence (top award)
The International Illumination Design Awards Award of Distinction (top award)
The UK National Lighting Award – Exterior category
The Scottish Design Awards – Exterior category
The UK Building Services Awards – Lighting Project of the Year
The RIBA Stirling Prize Building Of The Year Award 2002.