Meadowbank Railway Bridge - Historic Engineering Marker #59 Meadowbank, New South Wales, Australia
By Team MavEtJu on 12-Oct-15. Waypoint GA7582

Meadowbank Railway Bridge - Historic Engineering Marker #59

The Institution of Engineers will honour the 1886 iron lattice bridge over the Parramatta River between Rhodes and Meadowbank as an HISTORIC ENGINEERING MARKER. This bridge and the 1889 Hawkesbury River railway bridge were the largest structures on the railway link from Sydney to Newcastle. Sir Henry Parkes, in his speech at the opening of the latter bridge, used the physical uniting of South Australia Victoria and southern New South Wales to northern New South Wales and Queensland as symbolic of the need to unite the colonies into a federated Australia.

Contents of the plaque:

Meadowbank Railway Bridge

this was the eleventh and longest of the twelve lattice railway bridges erected in NSW between 1871 and 1887 under the direction of railway Engineer-in-Chief John Whitton. It was the second of two to have double tracks, was fabricated in England and erected by local contractor Amos Bros. in 1886. Decommissioned in 1980, the bridge remained out of service for 20 years before becoming a cycle and pedestrian path in April 2000.

DEDICATED BY THE INSTITUTION OF ENGINEERS, AUSTRALIA AND THE STATE RAIL AUTHORITY, NSW 2001

When logging this virtual, please add a photo of yourself or your GPSr at the plaque.

For more information, please see the nomination PDF at the Heritage Register at the Engineers Australia website: Ceremony