The Hawkesbury Bridge, New South Wales. (Includes Plates).

Abstract

THE railway system of New South Wales until recently consisted of two separate divisions, the one starting from Sydney, and branching in a westerly, southerly, and south-westerly direction, while the other originated a t Newcastle on the sea-coast, about 100 miles north of Sydney, and communicated with the northern part of the Colony, and with Queensland.The Hawkesbury Bridge is situated upon the connecting link of railway which was designed to unite these separate divisions. At the site of the bridge, about 7 miles from the sea, the estuary of the Hawkesbury has a total width of about 6,600 feet, and is divided into two channels by Long Island (Plate 1, Fig. l). A solid embankment carries the railway across the comparatively shallow southern channel, on leaving which the line is tunnelled through a high promontory forming the eastern end of Long Island (Plate l, Fig. 2 ) , and then crosses the main channel to Mullet Point by the bridge which is the subject of this Paper.The Colonial Government, after a considerable amount of discussion, decided to invite not only tenders for the construction of the work, but also designs for the same, and took the necessary steps t,o make the competition world-wide. A committee, consisting of Xr. W . H. Barlow, Past President Inst.