Historic Bridges of Gundagai - Historic Engineering Marker #44 Gundagai, New South Wales, Australia
By Team MavEtJu on 29-Oct-15. Waypoint GA7706

Historic Bridges of Gundagai - Historic Engineering Marker #44

The historic bridges at Gundagai consist of

• an iron-truss road bridge named the Prince Alfred Bridge, 1867
• a timber beam road viaduct, 1869, reconstructed 1898
• a timber truss railway viaduct, 1903
• a steel pin-jointed railway truss, 1903.

Each and collectively they have high heritage significance because the history of Gundagai is the history of a river town plagued by floods and where its bridges, particularly the Prince Alfred Bridge and its approach viaduct, were essential to maintaining land communication.

Contents of the plaque:

These two bridges comprise similar pinpointed structures over the Murrumbidgee river and timber viaducts over the flood plain. The 1867 iron, three-span warren truss road bridge and two successive viaducts carried the Hume Highway for 110 years. The iron cylinders for the piers were cast at Mittagong by Fitzroy Iron Works and the trusses were assembled using iron work from England. The railway bridge is a steel hog-back style truss which was manufactured in the USA by A&P Roberts Company. The bridge and its timber howe truss viaduct, the longest in Australia, were completed in 1903 by the Department of Public Works' engineers and day labour. These structures carried the branch railway to Tumur for 82 years. Dedicated by the Institution of Engineers, Australia and Gundagai Historic Bridges Inc. - 1998

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: https://www.engineersaustralia.org.au/portal/heritage/historic-bridges-gundagai-murrumbidgee-river-1867-1903