THE Transporter Bridge Visitor Centre will reopen its doors for four days this Easter Bank Holiday weekend offering members of the public a sneak preview of the new ‘Bridging the World’ exhibition.

The exhibition, part of the £2.6m Heritage Lottery Fund-supported Tees Transporter Bridge Visitor Experience Project, celebrates the role played by Cleveland Bridge and Dorman Long in the development and construction of landmark bridges across the globe.

It will include many previously unseen images from Teesside Archives’ yet to be catalogued Cleveland Bridge Collection, including photographs of the Bosphorus, Forth Road, Sydney Harbour and Victoria Falls Bridges.

Tosh Warwick, Tees Transporter Bridge education, learning and events officer, said: “The exhibition is the first that has been able to bring together the heritage of these two world famous bridge building firms using never seen before archival photographs.

"We hope members of the public enjoy seeing first-hand the unique on-loan Sydney Harbour Bridge items alongside historic material from the Transporter Bridge.”

Other highlights include a number of items on loan from Sydney Harbour Bridge collector Charles Horne, including a print of a watercolour commissioned by Dorman Long when proposing designs for the Sydney Harbour Bridge, the official programme from the opening of the Sydney Harbour Bridge in 1932, cable from the ‘coathanger’ and a photograph from Dorman Long’s offices of the Bridge under construction.

The centre will be open from 9.30am to 3.30pm tomorrow (Friday, April 18) until Easter Monday.

Following the bank holiday weekend, it will be closed to the public from Tuesday, April 22 to allow the ongoing repainting and renovation works to continue.