The Victoria Bridge is a vehicular and pedestrian bridge over the

Brisbane River The Brisbane River is the longest river in South East Queensland, Australia, and flows through the city of Brisbane, before emptying into Moreton Bay on the Coral Sea. John Oxley, the first European to explore the river, named it after the ...

. The current bridge, opened in 1969, is the third permanent crossing erected at this location. Since 24 January 2021, the bridge was closed to general traffic and carried buses, pedestrians and cyclists only. The Victoria Bridge, the Brisbane River's first road crossing has had a long and interesting history. Since 1865 there have been several versions of the bridge built to connect South Brisbane (near the South Bank Parklands and Queensland Cultural Centre) to the

Brisbane central business district Brisbane City is the central suburb and central business district of Brisbane, the state capital of Queensland, Australia. It is colloquially referred to as the "Brisbane CBD" or "the city". It is located on a point on the northern bank of the ...

(CBD) at North Quay. Half of the road space on the bridge is now given over to the South-East Busway. In the 2006 Brisbane City Centre Draft Masterplan, a new crossing immediately adjacent to the Victoria Bridge, tentatively named the Adelaide Street Bridge was recommended for a feasibility study.

1864 Brisbane Bridge

Construction of a bridge across the Brisbane River was first agreed to in 1861. The newly formed

Legislative Assembly of Queensland The Legislative Assembly of Queensland is the sole chamber of the unicameral Parliament of Queensland established under the Constitution of Queensland. Elections are held every four years and are done by full preferential voting. The Assembly ...

forced the council to pay for the costs, to be financed by unsold crown land in South Brisbane which was transferred to the Corporation of Brisbane under the terms of the Brisbane Bridge Act of 1861. £70,000 worth of borrowings was acquired from the

Bank of Queensland The Bank of Queensland (branded BOQ) is an Australian retail bank with headquarters in Brisbane, Queensland. The bank is one of the oldest financial institutions in Queensland, having begun as a building society. It now has 163 branches througho ...

secured by mortgage of the bridge lands. Work began on the foundations for the first bridge across the Brisbane River, then known as the Brisbane Bridge, on 22 August 1864. The contractor, John Bourne, offered to convert the scaffolding he was constructing into a temporary bridge. In return for this and an annual payment to the council, he was allowed to charge a toll. This timber structure opened in June 1865. The

suspended payments in July 1866 and the shareholders decided to wind the bank up, bringing about a halt to funding for the project. The Queensland Government was reluctant to take on responsibility for the bridge's construction because it didn't want to incur debt. The timber bridge quickly succumbed to marine wood worm Teredo Navalis and began to progressively collapse. The council wasn't able to fully repair the structure and its remnants took two years to fall away into the river, along with some components of the partly built iron bridge.

1874 Victoria Bridge

Following resolution of the issue of the debt owed to the liquidators of the Bank Of Queensland in 1871, an English company, Peto, Brassey and Co, agreed to complete the bridge. The new crossing was opened on 15 June 1874 by the

Governor of Queensland The governor of Queensland is the representative in the state of Queensland of the monarch of Australia. In an analogous way to the governor-general of Australia at the national level, the governor performs constitutional and ceremonial func ...

George Phipps, 2nd Marquess of Normanby George Augustus Constantine Phipps, 2nd Marquess of Normanby (23 July 1819 – 3 April 1890), styled Viscount Normanby between 1831 and 1838 and Earl of Mulgrave between 1838 and 1863, was a British Liberal politician and colonial governor of No ...

who gave it the name "Victoria Bridge", and was an iron structure and a

toll bridge A toll bridge is a bridge where a monetary charge (or '' toll'') is required to pass over. Generally the private or public owner, builder and maintainer of the bridge uses the toll to recoup their investment, in much the same way as a toll road ...

. The bridge was paid for by significant council borrowings that were to be recouped by tolls. However a lack of revenue and widespread community objections to the tolls forced its transfer to the Colonial Government. The tolls were abolished at this time. The bridge included a turning span to allow tall-masted river traffic to pass upstream. A condition of the original Bridge Act was that the bridge "would not obstruct the navigation of the river Brisbane by sea-going vessels". Over time, the swing was little used and subsequently water and gas pipes were laid across it. After the Council lost a court action in 1885 brought by a ship owner when it refused to operate the swing, the Government swiftly passed legislation fixing the bridge. The next year, tram-lines were laid along the bridge. It carried a and a diameter pipe which supplied mains water to South Brisbane. This bridge was partially washed away in the

1893 Brisbane flood The 1893 Brisbane flood, occasionally referred to as the Great Flood of 1893 or the Black February flood, occurred in 1893 in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. The Brisbane River burst its banks on three occasions in February 1893. It was the ...

. In the meantime, ferries were used to transport people and goods across the busy river. This, however, led to the capsize of the ferry ‘’Pearl’’ disaster in 1896 with the loss of more than 40 lives. A temporary wooden structure was built covering the collapsed section of the old bridge while the new bridge was being built.

1897 Victoria Bridge

BrisbaneCombinationTramVictoriaBridge1906

View of the second Victoria Bridge in Brisbane, 1954

Another replacement bridge was built and entered service in 1897, lasting until 1969, when it was demolished. This second bridge was designed by

Alfred Barton Brady Alfred Barton Brady was an engineer and architect in Queensland, Australia. He was one of Queensland's most important early engineers and was particularly known for his bridge design. He was the Queensland Colonial Architect and many of his build ...

. It was constructed of steel and wrought iron (superstructure), cast iron (structure) and stone (abutments and wing walls - purple hard stone/porphyry, brown freestone and Portland cement) and had two carriage ways and two footpaths. As early as 1943 evidence of the bridge buckling from the weight of increased traffic was noticed. Tram numbers on the bridge had to be restricted and cars limited to the outer lanes as a result. A portion of the southern abutment of the previous bridge remains adjacent to the current bridge, including a pedestrian arch, a short remnant of

tram A tram (called a streetcar or trolley in North America) is a rail vehicle that travels on tramway tracks on public urban streets; some include segments on segregated right-of-way. The tramlines or networks operated as public transport ...

track and a memorial to Hector Vasyli, a young boy who was killed in a traffic accident at that point when waving to servicemen returning from the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

. The abutment is heritage-listed.

Current bridge

Planning commenced on a new bridge in 1953, however in 1957 an inspection revealed that there had been no deterioration since 1949, and with careful maintenance, its life would be indefinite. A new bridge, which was opened on 14 April 1969, was needed to meet growing traffic demands. It cost A$3.2 million and featured a modern design which has been described as sleek and elegant. For a short period both bridges were open, each operating in one direction only.

References

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