Dorman Long: The Teesside Steel Firm That Built Two Famous Bridges

When people look up at the great arch of the Tyne Bridge, the defining symbol of Newcastle and Gateshead, many do not realise that it has a famous twin on the other side of the world. Both the Tyne Bridge and the Sydney Harbour Bridge were built by the same company, Dorman Long of Teesside, one of the greatest steel and bridge-building firms in the history of the North East. The story of Dorman Long is a tale of Teesside steel that shaped skylines across the globe.

Iron and Steel on Teesside.

Dorman Long was founded in 1875 when Arthur Dorman, a man from Kent who had moved north to learn the iron trade, went into partnership with Albert de Lande Long. The firm began as ironmakers on Teesside, producing bars and angles for the shipbuilding industry, and it grew rapidly through expansion and the acquisition of other businesses. Teesside in this era was a powerhouse of iron and steel production, and Dorman Long rose to become one of the leading firms in the industry, eventually growing into the largest iron and steel business in Britain.

A Giant of the Industry.

Through a series of acquisitions, including the historic Middlesbrough ironworks that had helped to establish the town as a centre of the industry, Dorman Long expanded enormously. Its works on Teesside covered vast areas and employed thousands of people, and the company became one of the largest steel manufacturers in the British Empire. The name of Dorman Long came to be found on steel structures around the world, and the firm's products were so dominant in some markets that a steel girder of a certain type was sometimes simply referred to by the company's name.

Building the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

In the 1920s Dorman Long entered the field of structural engineering and bridge building, and its first great contract was one of the most ambitious projects of the age. The company was chosen to build the Sydney Harbour Bridge in Australia, a vast single-span steel arch that would become one of the most recognisable structures in the world. Dorman Long supplied the great majority of the steel and carried out the construction, and the completed bridge, opened in the 1930s, became an enduring symbol of Sydney and of Australia itself, admired across the globe.

The Tyne Bridge, Sydney's Little Sister.

At the very same time, Dorman Long was building another arch bridge much closer to home. The Tyne Bridge, linking Newcastle and Gateshead, was constructed by the same firm using a similar design, and it is often described as a smaller relative of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Opened in the late 1920s by the King, the Tyne Bridge became the defining landmark of the region, a sight that tells returning Geordies they are home. That the same Teesside company built both bridges, one a world-famous icon and the other the heart of Tyneside, is a wonderful piece of North East history.

Bridges Around the World.

The Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Tyne Bridge were the most famous of Dorman Long's structures, but they were far from the only ones. The company built bridges and steel structures in many parts of the world, and its expertise in large-scale structural engineering was recognised internationally. The firm's steelwork could be found in buildings, bridges and industrial structures across continents, a testament to the quality of Teesside steel and the skill of the engineers and workers who shaped it. Few regional companies have left such a visible mark on the wider world.

The People Behind the Steel.

Behind the great structures stood the thousands of workers who made the steel and built the bridges. The ironworkers, steelworkers, riveters and engineers of Teesside laboured in demanding and often dangerous conditions to produce the materials and structures that carried the company's name around the world. Their skill and effort were the foundation of Dorman Long's success, and the steel communities of Teesside took deep pride in the knowledge that their work was helping to build some of the most famous structures on the planet, from their own riverside to the far side of the globe.

A Lasting Symbol.

The story of Dorman Long is, in a sense, written across the skylines of two continents. Every time the great arch of the Tyne Bridge or the Sydney Harbour Bridge appears in a photograph or a news broadcast, the legacy of Teesside steel is on display, even if the connection is not always known. The company itself was eventually absorbed into the wider British steel industry, but its monuments endure. For the North East, the knowledge that a local firm built two of the most beloved bridges in the world is a source of genuine and lasting pride.

Teesside, the Birthplace of Modern Steel.

The story of Dorman Long is part of a wider story of Teesside as one of the great centres of iron and steel production. In the nineteenth century the discovery of ironstone in the nearby hills helped to transform Middlesbrough from a tiny settlement into a booming industrial town, sometimes called Ironopolis, and the region became renowned for the quality and quantity of the iron and steel it produced.

The growth was so rapid and remarkable that Middlesbrough was described as an infant Hercules, a town that seemed to spring up almost overnight on the strength of its industry. Dorman Long emerged from and came to dominate this extraordinary industrial landscape, building on the foundations laid by earlier pioneers.

The steel produced on Teesside went into ships, buildings, railways and bridges across the world, and the skills of the region's workforce were second to none. The bridges that made Dorman Long famous were the visible products of this deep industrial expertise, but behind them lay a whole community built on iron and steel.

To understand Dorman Long is to understand Teesside itself, a region whose furnaces and mills helped to build the modern world.

Over to you.

The same Teesside firm built both the Tyne Bridge and the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

Did you know that the Tyne Bridge has a world-famous twin built by the same Teesside company?