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| 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.
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