THE PATERSON BRIDGE, WEST TAMAR HIGHWAY

THE PATERSON BRIDGE, WEST TAMAR HIGHWAY

I have a bit of a tendency to personify structures – insofar as one can feel a bit sorry for a bridge, I feel it for this one – the concrete bridge which is now part of the West Tamar Highway at the mouth of the Cataract Gorge . Talk about coming an unloved second – barely noticed, rarely acknowledged, and treated as a bit of a necessary embarrassment, standing beside its handsome historic older brother. Everyone writes about King's Bridge, which is indeed a beautiful structure (which will no doubt feature in the blog in the not too distant future), but have a tendency to call this one “the second bridge”, the “more modern bridge”, the “other bridge” etc., if indeed it's mentioned at all. Although I travel on it each day, I didn't know it had a name, but it is actually called “The Paterson Bridge", and I would guess that I'm not the only “local” who didn't know that!

The bridge was officially opened on 02 November 1972 by the Premier Eric Reece. It took a while to find, but there is a really interesting article at: http://www.stors.tas.gov.au/au-7-0112-00023_1

which tells you more than you could ever possibly need to know about the dimensions and structure of the bridge, and which includes a brilliant photo taken from above the two bridges, as well as construction pictures and plans.

Paterson Bridge is, perhaps not conventionally beautiful, but I love the sweeping line that frames the view in the photo, and always (in admittedly a rather Tasmanian way) feel like it's a sort of unofficial boundary - I'm either arriving in “town” or leaving it when I drive across.