slumberjack wrote:
Moving on, Corio, do you know about one of the rail bridges in Footscray formerly being over the Yarra? I was told this occurred when more lines were added between South Yarra and Richmond stations.
The rail bridge you're referring to would have to be this one, at the end of the tunnel under Bunbury Street Footscray, opened in 1929.
I would be very surprised if it had previously been used as you speculate. The rail bridge over the Yarra between Richmond and South Yarra stations is known as the Cremorne Bridge. The original Cremorne Bridge was opened in 1860, the line was quadruplicated in 1883, and the bridge was completely renewed in the 1940s. So the dates don't fit and anyway, the superstructure of bridge above doesn't look to be from the Victorian era.
slumberjack wrote:
I found some images of the construction of the bridge you mentioned from around 1912 on Picture Australia from the Victorian Railways:
http://www.pictureaustralia.org/apps/pi ... ode=searchThanks for that. Yes, those pictures show the reconstruction of the superstructure of the rail bridge between Footscray and South Kensington in 1912. It was a very complex operation because it was done without major disruption to the rail traffic over the bridge. These days the line would probably be closed for weeks, with passengers being bussed.
slumberjack wrote:
There was also a draw bridge on Smithfield Rd and later a swing bridge further along which that has been removed.
That's really interesting. The drawbridge was obviously replaced in the interwar period by the present Lynch's Bridge, after it was decided that river traffic no longer needed the clearance that the drawbridge provided. I'm pretty sure that the drawbridge was also known as Lynch's Bridge.
I didn't know there had been a swing bridge over the Maribyrnong. Photos I've now looked at suggest it might have been in the vicinity of the present Shepherds Bridge on (New) Footscray Road. Is that correct, and when it was removed?
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