Bridgewater Bridge
The
Bridgewater Bridge and Causeway spans the
Derwent River in
Tasmania,
Australia between
Bridgewater and
Granton. It consists of a
vertical lift bridge and a specially-built
causeway connecting the bridge to the east bank of the river. It accommodates a two-lane
highway, a single track
railway and, on the bridge section, a footpath. As the bridge is the major connector of the
Midlands Highway on the eastern shore and the
Brooker Highway on the western, the lifting of the bridge can cause considerable traffic delays, depending on the time of day and season.
The Bridgewater Bridge was one of the first bridges constructed in Tasmania following British settlement in 1804, and gave its name to the nearby suburb of
Bridgewater,
Hobart.
Lieutenant-Governor George Arthur commissioned the construction of the bridge and causeway as part of the
Launceston-
Hobart Trunk Road, linking both Tasmanian towns and providing easier access to farmlands in the
interior of Tasmania.
The causeway
Construction commenced on the bridge in 1829. The causeway, which was constructed first, was built by a workforce of 200
convicts who had been condemned to secondary punishment. These convicts, using nothing but wheelbarrows, shovels and picks and sheer muscle power, shifted 2 million tonnes of soil, stones and clay. The finished causeway stretched 1.3 km, although did not span the full width of the Derwent. The original plan apparently called for a
viaduct, but this plan was abandoned and the half-built arches were filled in to form the present causeway.
The first bridges
Upon completion of the causeway, a
punt operated across the deep, navigable section of the river, but it could not cope with the traffic demands. To resolve this issue, the first bridge across this point of the Derwent was opened in 1849. Being a
swing bridge, it could be pivoted out of the way to allow ships to pass through. In the late 1870s, the Launceston-Hobart Railway called for modifications to the causeway if it was to be built over it. The causeway required widening and the swing bridge was modifed accordingly as well.
On 22 July, 1886, a train from the north was passing over the bridge when the engine left the tracks and tipped over, hanging precariously above the water on the edge of the southern end of the swing bridge. The fireman and driver were injured, but no-one was killed and the locomotive survived. The cause of the accident was found to be that the rails failed to match properly when the bridge was closed, so the bridge was modified again to solve this problem. The bridge lasted several decades more before being replaced by another swing bridge in the early 1900s.
Both the first and second swing bridges did not run straight off the end of the causeway; rather, they turned slightly to the right. The second swing bridge was left standing when the present lifting bridge was being constructed to prevent traffic stoppages, so the present bridge deviates from the causeway quite appreciably.
The current lift bridge
Construction on the present steel
vertical lift bridge across the Derwent began in 1939. It was briefly interrupted by
World War II, but was finally completed in 1946. It consists of a long concrete bridge that leads off the end of the causeway, and a steel lifting section just before the northern bank of the river. The lifting section is one of only a few remaining in the
Southern Hemisphere, and is the largest of its kind remaining in Australia.
Until 1984, the Boyer Newsprint Mill near
New Norfolk, upstream from Bridgewater, moved all its produce by river. Many
barges were used to transport paper from the mill to the storage sheds at Hobart, and for this reason the bridge was required to open very frequently. Consequently, a bridge-keeper lived on-site and opened and closed the bridge when required. However, when the decision was made to cease river transportation, an on-site keeper was no longer necessary, so although the bridge can and does still open, bridge openings are now infrequent.
*
Walkabout Australian Travel Guide*
Library of Tasmania Images, historic pictures of the Bridgewater Bridge and Causeway
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RailTasmania, modern picture of the Bridgewater Bridge and Causeway
