Horseshoe Bridge
As the gold rush hit Western Australia in the 1890s, Perth experienced its first population and construction boom. Unconstrained growth around the central railway station saw the area develop into a “great area of yards and squalid sheds of ill conceived contrivance”. With up to seven sets of rail tracks the area had become very difficult and dangerous to cross by horse or on foot. The major challenge faced by the Public Works Department in designing a bridge to cross the railways was the close proximity of the buildings on both sides of the railway, which made it very problematic to construct a straight bridge.
An ingenious engineering solution to the site issues was approved in 1902 based on the design of a "horseshoe" shaped bridge. Robert Howard[1], an architect, working as a specifications draughtsman for the Public Works Department, privately drew up the plans for the horseshoe bridge and took out a personal copyright on them on February 13, 1902. He then resigned from the Public Works Department in July 1902 so that he could be paid for the plans, specifications and survey work. He had to take legal action, but was awarded £1,527 in December 1903 for his work.
The original estimate in early 1902 was £25,000. However, construction was delayed and by the time a contract was awarded to H W Vincent and Son on 26 February 1903, the contract price was £34,987. At the time H W Vincent and Son were also working on the Supreme Court Buildings which were opened on 8 June 1903. The bridge was opened for traffic in June 1904. The final cost was the then enormous sum of £40,000.
The completion of the bridge allowed for easier vehicular and pedestrian traffic over the tracks and reinforced William Street as one of the main access routes into Central Perth from the north. In the early 1920s, a tram line was laid over the horseshoe Bridge, connecting Osborne Park and Leederville with central Perth via Newcastle Street. The bridge has acted as a major link between the city centre and the expanding northern suburbs and remains in use.
One of the enduring features of the bridge was an 114,000 litre water tower built in 1896 for the railway authority at the intersection of Wellington and William Streets to feed the thirsty trains. It was incorporated into the final bridge design. When steam trains ceased in 1971, the tower had another lease of life as an advertising hoarding. Completely rebuilt in the 1980s, the tower was finally demolished in April 2014 as part of the City Link project. City Link entailed sinking the railway tracks west of the Horseshoe Bridge to create an open space above the tracks; this permitted ground level pedestrian movement between the CBD and the Northbridge precinct for the first time since the railway was first built in 1881.
The Horseshoe Bridge is one of the oldest surviving bridges in central Perth and is now a significant part of Western Australia’s built heritage.
- ↑ Richard Edwin Howard (1847-1913) was London born, working as an architect by 1871, married Harrietta Courtenay Palmer in London in 1881, came with his wife to Australia in 1884, and died in Perth on August 19, 1913 aged 66.
