Which Millennium?

My comment a few days ago about the Manx use of 'Millennium' to describe the 1000 years of the Tynwald, not the year 2000 has been proved not entirely correct...

It was (we think) 1979, and the Millennium Way, a long-distance path here, is named after that anniversary.

But today, in our trip round the harbour, we were shown the Millennium Bridge - and that was named for the 2000 Millennium. So I was generalising a bit too much before, but a bit confused now.



Anyway, the Millennium Bridge is a rather splendid new bascule lifting bridge over part of Douglas harbour, replacing several earlier generations of moving bridges here, including a particularly long swing bridge. The full channel width is no longer need as passenger ferries/packet ships no longer need to get into this part of the dock - so a causeway takes the road over part of the channel, with the bascule bridge over just one section.

There's a wacky control tower for the old structure too. Having had some experience of the problems of bascule bridges, and the wear and tear they suffer, I'm not surprised to learn that IoM Government had to replace bearings on it in 2004, just a few years after construction.