The Anzac Bridge is an eight-lane

cable-stayed bridge A cable-stayed bridge has one or more ''towers'' (or ''pylons''), from which cables support the bridge deck. A distinctive feature are the cables or stays, which run directly from the tower to the deck, normally forming a fan-like pattern ...

that carries the Western Distributor (A4) across Johnstons Bay between Pyrmont and

Glebe Island Glebe Island was a major port facility in Sydney Harbour and, in association with the adjacent White Bay facility, was the primary receiving venue for imported cars and dry bulk goods in the region until 2008. It is surrounded by White, Johnsto ...

(part of the suburb of

Rozelle Rozelle is a suburb in the inner west of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It is located 4 kilometres west of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of the Inner West Council. Location Rozelle s ...

), on the western fringe of the central business district of Sydney,

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

, Australia. The bridge forms part of the road network leading from the central business district, the

Sydney Harbour Bridge The Sydney Harbour Bridge is a steel through arch bridge in Sydney, spanning Port Jackson, Sydney Harbour from the Sydney central business district, central business district (CBD) to the North Shore (Sydney), North Shore. The view of the bridg ...

, and

Cross City Tunnel The Cross City Tunnel is a twin-road tunnel tollway located in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The tunnel links Darling Harbour on the western fringe of the central business district to Rushcutters Bay in the Eastern Suburbs. Each o ...

to the

Inner West The Inner West of Sydney is an area directly west of the Sydney central business district, New South Wales, Australia. The suburbs that make up the Inner West are predominantly located along the southern shore of Port Jackson (Parramatta River ...

and Northern Suburbs.

History

Glebe Island Bridges

There were two bridges over Johnstons Bay before the construction of the Anzac Bridge. The first bridge was constructed as part of a project to move the

abattoir A slaughterhouse, also called abattoir (), is a facility where animals are slaughtered to provide food. Slaughterhouses supply meat, which then becomes the responsibility of a packaging facility. Slaughterhouses that produce meat that is no ...

s out of central Sydney, and to construct public abattoirs at Glebe Island. The first pile of the original bridge was driven in October 1860. The bridge was opened in 1862 and was a timber beam bridge long and wide with a swing section on the eastern side. It replaced a double steam punt crossing. The second

Glebe Island Bridge The Glebe Island Bridge is a heritage-listed disused swing Allan truss road bridge that carried Victoria Road (as Bank Street) across Rozelle Bay, located in the inner city Sydney suburb of Pyrmont in the City of Sydney local government ar ...

was an electrically operated

swing bridge A swing bridge (or swing span bridge) is a movable bridge that has as its primary structural support a vertical locating pin and support ring, usually at or near to its center of gravity, about which the swing span (turning span) can then pi ...

opened in 1903, the year after the opening of the new

Pyrmont Bridge The Pyrmont Bridge, a heritage-listed swing bridge across Cockle Bay, is located in Darling Harbour, part of Port Jackson, west of the central business district in the City of Sydney local government area of New South Wales, Australia. Open ...

over Sydney's Darling Harbour, which has a similar design. The bridge was designed by

Percy Allan Percy Allan (12 July 1861 – 7 May 1930) was a civil engineer who designed many public works in New South Wales, including the design of 583 bridges. Early life Allan was the son of Maxwell Rennie Allan, principal Departmental secretary, Un ...

of the New South Wales Public Works Department who also designed the

. Delays due to increasing traffic, which were exacerbated by having to close a major arterial road to allow the movement of shipping into

Blackwattle Bay Blackwattle Bay is a bay located to the southeast of Glebe Island and east of Rozelle Bay on Sydney Harbour, in New South Wales, Australia. The bay was named in 1788 after the Black Wattle tree found at the bay, which was used for housing cons ...

, led to the construction of the present-day Anzac Bridge. The 1903 bridge is still standing, but there is no access to pedestrians or vehicular traffic.

Anzac Bridge

The stay cable design concept development and final design for the new bridge were carried out by a team from the NSW Roads & Traffic Authority, led by their Chief Bridge Engineer

Ray Wedgwood Raymond John Lloyd Wedgwood (27 May 1942 – 5 March 2020) was an Australian engineer who served as the Chief Bridge Engineer of the NSW Department of Main Roads (DMR) and the Roads and Traffic Authority of NSW (RTA). He designed and supervis ...

and the construction by

Baulderstone Baulderstone, formerly Baulderstone Hornibrook, was an Australian construction company. History MR Hornibrook In 1926, Manuel Hornibrook founded a construction company in Brisbane. Amongst its notable projects were the Story Bridge and William Jo ...

. The bridge was opened to traffic on 3 December 1995 as the Glebe Island Bridge. The bridge was given its current name on

Remembrance Day Remembrance Day (also known as Poppy Day owing to the tradition of wearing a remembrance poppy) is a memorial day observed in Commonwealth member states since the end of the First World War to honour armed forces members who have died in t ...

in 1998 to honour the memory of the soldiers of the

Australian and New Zealand Army Corps The Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) was a First World War army corps of the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force. It was formed in Egypt in December 1914, and operated during the Gallipoli campaign. General William Birdwood com ...

(known as Anzacs) who served in

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. An

Australian Flag The flag of Australia, also known as the Australian Blue Ensign, is based on the British Blue Ensign—a blue field with the Union Jack in the upper hoist quarter—augmented with a large white seven-pointed star (the Commonwealth Star) and a r ...

flies atop the eastern pylon and a New Zealand Flag flies atop the western pylon. A bronze memorial statue of an Australian Anzac soldier ("digger") holding a

Lee–Enfield The Lee–Enfield or Enfield is a bolt-action, magazine-fed repeating rifle that served as the main firearm of the military forces of the British Empire and Commonwealth during the first half of the 20th century, and was the British Army's sta ...

rifle in the "rest on arms reverse" drill position was placed on the western end of the bridge on Anzac Day in 2000. A statue of a

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

soldier was added to a plinth across the road from the Australian Digger, facing towards the east, and was unveiled by

Prime Minister of New Zealand The prime minister of New Zealand ( mi, Te pirimia o Aotearoa) is the head of government of New Zealand. The prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, leader of the New Zealand Labour Party, took office on 26 October 2017. The prime minister (inform ...

Helen Clark Helen Elizabeth Clark (born 26 February 1950) is a New Zealand politician who served as the 37th prime minister of New Zealand from 1999 to 2008, and was the administrator of the United Nations Development Programme from 2009 to 2017. She was ...

in the presence of

Premier of New South Wales The premier of New South Wales is the head of government in the state of New South Wales, Australia. The Government of New South Wales follows the Westminster Parliamentary System, with a Parliament of New South Wales acting as the legislatu ...

Morris Iemma Morris Iemma (; born 21 July 1961) is a former Australian politician who was the 40th Premier of New South Wales. He served from 3 August 2005 to 5 September 2008. From Sydney, Iemma attended the University of Sydney and the University of Techno ...

on Sunday 27 April 2008.

Description

The bridge is wide and the main span is long. The reinforced concrete pylons are high and support the deck by two planes of stay cables. Initially the stay cables were plagued by vibrations which have since been resolved by the addition of thin stabilising cables between the stay cables. There is a grade-separated shared pedestrian footpath and

cycleway Cycling infrastructure is all infrastructure cyclists are allowed to use. Bikeways include bike paths, bike lanes, cycle tracks, rail trails and, where permitted, sidewalks. Roads used by motorists are also cycling infrastructure, except wher ...

located on the northern side of the bridge, making possible a walk from Glebe Point Road, down Bridge Road, over the bridge and round

back to Glebe Point Road. The bridge can carry a maximum of 180,000 cars per day. It reached its maximum capacity in 2002, only seven years after it was finished. The bridge is regularly patrolled by security guards as a counter-terrorism measure. Security cameras also monitor the walkway. The bridge has a speed limit of : it was reduced from in January 2005. Also prior to that date, the bridge had seven traffic lanes (4 eastbound, 3 westbound). Originally, there were bus stops at the western end of the bridge, but they were removed because buses pulling out from the stops created a hazard as they merged with other traffic moving at (or close to) the speed limit. The Australian Anzac statue on the northern side of the bridge is adjacent to the former city-bound bus stop; the New Zealand Anzac statue was installed within the ramp area of the former stop on the southern side.

Use in popular culture

The bridge has been used in a number of artistic works including: * The bridge was used in the ''Looking for Alibrandi'' (1999) movie scene where the title character, Josephine Alibrandi, and her date Jacob Coote rode across the bridge on Jacob's motorcycle. * Deni Hines' song " It's Alright" (1995) features the nearly completed bridge in the music video group dance sequences, the filming of which taking place a few months before the bridge's December 1995 opening. * You Am I's song " Purple Sneakers" from the band's album ''

Hi Fi Way ''Hi Fi Way'' is the second album by Australian rock band You Am I, released in 1995. ''Hi Fi Way'' was You Am I's first release with new drummer Rusty Hopkinson (formerly of Nursery Crimes) after the departure of former drummer Mark Tunaley. ...

'' (1995) opens with the lyric "''Had a scratch only you could itch, underneath the Glebe Point bridge''". The Glebe Island Bridge was still under construction when Tim Rogers wrote and recorded the song in 1994, with the bridge's name change to 'Anzac Bridge' not occurring until 1998.

Gallery

Atop the anzac bridge.jpg, Anzac Bridge pylons and cables Anzac Bridge East.jpg, Anzac Bridge at dusk. ANZAC Bridge at Night.jpg, ANZAC Bridge at night from Glebe Point. Sydney 02 11 2008.JPG, Aerial view of Sydney Harbour from the west in 2008. Anzac Bridge is visible at lower centre right, while the disused (second) Glebe Island Bridge is visible immediately to its left. Anzac bridge cable2.JPG, The Bridge's stay cables were initially plagued by vibrations, since resolved by the addition of thin stabilizing cables (pictured) between the much larger stay cables. Image:SAM_0746.JPG, The Australian Anzac statue on the north-western side of the bridge. Anzac bridge top.JPG, Stay cables attachment at the top of the pylon. Glebe island bridge.JPG, The disused (second) Glebe Island Bridge viewed from water level, with the deck of Anzac Bridge visible above. ANZAC Bridge Eastern Side.jpg, The eastern end, with CBD view in background

References

External links

Description and history (with construction photos) of the Anzac Bridge, Sydney
*

CC-By-SA A Creative Commons (CC) license is one of several public copyright licenses that enable the free distribution of an otherwise copyrighted "work".A "work" is any creative material made by a person. A painting, a graphic, a book, a song/lyrics ...

] {{DEFAULTSORT:Anzac Bridge Bridges completed in 1862 Bridges completed in 1903 Bridges completed in 1995 Bridges in Sydney Cable-stayed bridges in Australia Road bridges in New South Wales 1995 establishments in Australia ANZAC (Australia) 1862 establishments in Australia Rozelle, New South Wales Pyrmont, New South Wales