2-982-585 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The South Australian Company's Swing-Bridge at Port Adelaide, 1858. New bridge '...spanning the entrance to their new dock, and connecting the company's and Levi's wharfs...It was designed by Mr. W. Murray, the South Australian Company's engineer, and manufactured by Easton and Amos, London. Its erection has been under the supervision of Messrs. Mockridge and Anthony, who have been ably assisted by Mr. S. Milstead, foreman of the work. The structure is a double-winged swing or pivot bridge, spanning an opening of forty feet, constructed of cast and wrought iron, with longitudinal principal beams and truss-pieces of timber. The bridge has a carriage and foot way of seventeen feet in width, over which runs a line of rails connected with the railway station. The waterway is forty feet in the clear. The timber used in the piers is from Swan River, perhaps the very best wood to withstand the ravages of the worm and other detractive influences. The weight of each leaf, without the roadway, is about thirty tons; each abutment or pier contains, besides the timber piles, etc., nearly 100 cubic yards of stone filling'. From "Illustrated London News", 1858.