Auld Newcastle

The city of Newcastle Upon Tyne was founded at the lowest place the Tyne could be easily crossed. In 1080 the Normans built a wooden fort to safeguard the crossing. They also erected a wooden bridge.
The bridge was called Pons Aelius or ‘Bridge of Aelius’, Aelius being the family name of the Emperor Hadrian, who instigated the building of Hadrian's Wall along the Tyne-Solway Gap