The oldest working bridge in Australia

"SilentButNotReallyDeadly...killed by G/O Media" (silentbutnotreallydeadly) 01/28/2019 at 05:44 • Filed to: None

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Built 1823-25 in Richmond, Tasmania. Entirely the town's claim to fame. Though I will agree the proportions are favourable..

pip bip - choose Corrour > SilentButNotReallyDeadly...killed by G/O Media 01/28/2019 at 05:53

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didn’t a truck or bus damage it not too long ago?

pip bip - choose Corrour > SilentButNotReallyDeadly...killed by G/O Media 01/28/2019 at 05:55

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i stand corrected, it was 2007

SilentButNotReallyDeadly...killed by G/O Media > pip bip - choose Corrour 01/28/2019 at 06:09

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I recall that too but there’s no evidence of it. Whilst it is speed limited to 30 km/h and load rated to not ‘not much’ it still managed a fair amount of traffic whilst we were there including a couple of decent JD tractors. Impressive what a bunch of Irish and Scottish slaves managed to accomplish back in the day to be honest...

Svend > SilentButNotReallyDeadly...killed by G/O Media 01/28/2019 at 06:15

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That’s a beautiful bridge there.

Got to appreciate the sheer effort to build such a bridge and how they’ve stood the test of time.

The oldest one in my city goes back to 1815 (Eden Bridges, four lane car and pedestria n bridge) and the oldest in my county is said to predate 1736 (Slater Bridge, single pedestrian width bridge).

SilentButNotReallyDeadly...killed by G/O Media > Svend 01/28/2019 at 06:23

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Truth. A seeming million Chinese tourists can’t be wrong....

In all honesty though....the road surface is barely a foot thick and this river is not without the odd flood. How did those old timers know?

Svend > SilentButNotReallyDeadly...killed by G/O Media 01/28/2019 at 06:55

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In the old days they just built things right the first time.

I mean, this was a Victorian water tower for Claybury P sychiatric H ospital built in 1893.

This one is a Victorian gothic water tower built in 1897.

It’s 137ft tall and had a water tank inside made of 40mm thick pigiron and weighed 70 tons without water.

How the hell do you get something like that up there or to build one up there.

Lets be brutally honest, these were just bridges and water towers for hospitals but you just can’t get stuff built like this anymore without it costing the earth, but they did these because they could.

Amazing stuff. 

facw > Svend 01/28/2019 at 10:16

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And of course 18th and 19th century bridges are pretty new, all things considered. This one turns 2000 years old next year (and is certainly not the oldest Roman bridge ):

Here in the US our timelines are obviously more compressed, the oldest bridge in my state is this one 1764: