Bonzle Collections - Bridges

Construction of the second Indooroopilly Railway Bridge, Brisbane, June 1894

contributed by QldPics, taken in 1894
(contact QldPics about this picture)

The second Indooroopilly Railway Bridge was opened on August 17, 1895. It replaced the Albert Railway Bridge which was washed away in the 1893 flood. The bridge was designed by Henry Charles Stanley, Chief Engineer of Railways, and at the time was the largest bridge in Australia which was wholly of local manufacture. The bridge consisted of two steel spans, supported on abutments of masonry and a central concrete pier encased in an iron caisson to low water mark and then built up with masonry to the bearings of the girders. Each span was 10.3 m long and each weighed about 610 tonnes. A neatly designed footway was carried on the bridge's upstream side. Stanley's bridge is still in use today although it has been supplemented with an adjacent bridge to cope with increased traffic. [Information taken from: Janet Hogan, Living history of Brisbane, 1982]