The High Level Bridge Over the Tyne: This important junction between the York and Newcastle and the Newcastle and Berwick Railway has been completed, and the event was celebrated on Tuesday last. In the afternoon of that day, a train of [specially invited] passengers passed along the temporary timber viaduct from the station at Gateshead to the station at Newcastle. Mr Hudson and several other Directors of the York, Newcastle, and Berwick line, who had been visiting Sunderland ... proceeded in a special train from that town to Gateshead... Several carriages were then added to the special train, and an open truck placed at each end, in which bands of music were stationed. The shrill sound of the whistle gave the signal for a royal salute, under the booming of which the train passed along the line, the band playing, and the thousands assembled to witness the event, rending the air with joyous acclamation Upon reaching the bridge, the bands struck up the well-known local air of "The Keel Row" which they continued till the train had reached the solid ground on the northern side of the river... The train proceeded to the Newcastle and Berwick station, where the company alighted and walked in procession to the Queen’s Head Inn, where a magnificent entertainment had been provided for the Directors and their friends, by the Mayor of Newcastle. [From the south abutment of the High Level Bridge] and the river pier on the south side, the cast iron arch and road-way are nearly completed, and the second arch will be in progress in the course of a few weeks. From the middle of the first arch, the line curves to a temporary timber viaduct erected along the west side of the intended bridge. The height of this viaduct is one hundred and twenty feet to the level of the rails; it is built upon piles, which are driven between thirty and forty feet into the bed of the river. Its stability was sufficiently tested on Monday, when Captain Leffan (sic), the Government Inspector of Railways, examined it preparatory to the opening. On that day, two powerful engines weighing upwards of seventy tons, traversed it at different degrees of speed for between two and three hours; the weight would be about one ton to a foot, being four or five times greater than the temporary structure will ever be required to