The landscape of Tyne and Wear is dominated by the River Tyne and River Wear characterized by the river bridges, including the icon Tyne Bridge, and the modern Millennium Bridge and complemented by green belts around the main conurbations. The main populations are centred in the cities of Newcastle upon Tyne, Sunderland, Gateshead, South Shields and Tynemouth.
Sunderland * Tyne and Wear * South Shields
Cullercoats * Whitley Bay * North Shields
For a long time a great coal-producing center and worldleader in shipbuilding and engineering, Newcastle-upon-Tyne
has suffered in the post-industrial age. First impressions are not
promising, yet the city has a distinctive, austere beauty, while its
heavily-accented citizens, called "Geordies", seem to have a permanent
twinkle in their eye. Six great bridges span the Tyne. The city took its name from the "new castle" built in 1080; a later Norman keep can still be seen.
