THOUSANDS of sightseers turned out yesterday for a glimpse of the region's latest landmark.

The 850-tonne Gateshead Millennium Bridge attracted large crowds, even though it is not due to open until next year.

The world's first rotating bridge was moved into place, spanning the Tyne between Newcastle and Gateshead, on Monday.

As it was lowered into position, the impressive structure took its place in the North-East's proud bridge-building heritage.

The eyes of the world were focused on the operation via the Internet. Viewers from as far away as Japan, Australia and the South Pacific have logged on to see the rotating blinking eye structure.

Almost 100,000 people accessed the webcam site which looks at the new bridge.

The site peaked at almost 500 hits a second at the most active time, between 10am and 1pm, on Monday.

More than half of the visitors to the website were from abroad.

The majority were from the US, followed by western Europe, but some were from Africa, Asia, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Singapore and the Pacific islands.

Television footage of the bridge arriving on the River Tyne was used by stations in Germany, Holland, Japan, Australia and Canada.