The Tyne Bridge will mark its centenary in six years' time.
Linking Newcastle and Gateshead, the iconic crossing has become a physical symbol of Tyneside, known around the world.
Taking four years to build between 1924 and 1928, it was a hugely challenging engineering project, requiring steel-nerved bravery from the men who actually built it.
READ MORE: Then and Now: The River Tyne at Redheugh, Gateshead, in 1978
Back in the 1920s, matters of health and safety weren’t a priority.
It was dangerous work. Remarkable film footage and photographs from the time show fearless men working high above the river without harnesses or helmets as the giant arch gradually takes shape in the Tyneside sky.
Workers, nicknamed 'monkey men', would use ladders lashed together to reach the top, or sometimes just shimmy up the columns.
Dozens of men ended up falling into the murky waters of the Tyne but, up until now, it was thought only one worker died during the construction of the bridge.
He was scaffolder Nathaniel Collins, from South Shields - a married man with four children. On Saturday, February 18, 1928, the 33-year-old plunged into the river from near the top of the bridge, hitting the footway on the way down.
Nathaniel was retrieved from the water and taken to Newcastle Infirmary where he sadly succumbed to his injuries.
But now, decades later, the name of another man who died working on the construction of the bridge has come to light.
Somehow the name of Francis McCoy, from Gateshead, has been forgotten over time - until now.
Francis' great nephew - another Frank McCoy, a retired schoolteacher living in Whickham - contacted ChroniceLive.
He said: "It has always been a family tradition that my dad's Uncle Francis worked for Dorman Long on the construction of the Tyne Bridge and that he was killed when the lid of a skip fell from a crane and hit him on the head.
"Records about the number of workers who are said to have died on this construction project are conservative in the extreme.
"So what about this family story I heard from more than one older family member?"
Frank turned detective and paid a visit to the local archives at the Discovery Museum in Newcastle where he was able to access the old coroners' reports.
After searching, he found the following:
"Francis McCoy, aged 44 years, general labourer, 7 Brandling St, Gateshead, died in the Royal Victoria Infirmary at 10.15am on 3rd February 1926.
"The deceased died from injuries received whilst following his employment owing to an empty skip having fallen on him by reason of it becoming detached from the winding bond of the crane in consequence of the connecting pin having accidentally slipped out of its place at the New Bridge under course of construction between Newcastle upon Tyne and Gateshead on the 3rd of February 1926 about 3.30 a.m."
The tragedy was later reported in the newspapers.
The Evening Chronicle on February 16, 1926, noted "carelessness in fixing a 7-inch steel pin which secured an earth skip to the winding bond of a crane" as the cause of the accident.
Francis was "working on the Gateshead foundations for the new bridge" and "died at Newcastle Infirmary from the head injuries he received".
Also on February 16, The North Mail ( a now-defunct newspaper) reported: "The deceased and another man were standing 10 feet below the level of the skip when it fell."
Looking back at the loss of his father's uncle in 1926, Frank says today: "I thought it was a shame that someone’s death like that should be forgotten. Somehow his name has been lost over time.
"I haven't got a photograph of Francis unfortunately, and he never married or had children."
Nearly 100 years after his death, we can once again report that 44-year-old Francis McCoy of Brandling St, Gateshead, tragically died while working on the construction of the Tyne Bridge.
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