Sandridge Bridge

Sandridge Bridge
use	Pedestrians, cyclists
Crossing of	Yarra River
place	Melbourne
construction	Girder bridge
overall length	178.4 m
width	17 m
Longest span	36.9 m
Clear height	4.7 m (at low tide)
building-costs	18.5 million AUD (renovation)
opening	1888
	location

-37.820218 144.962529Coordinates: 37 ° 49 ′ 13 ″ S , 144 ° 57 ′ 45 ″ E

The Sandridge Bridge (formerly Sandridge Railway Bridge ) is a 174.4 meter long girder bridge over the Yarra River in Melbourne and already the third bridge structure at this point. The first bridge was built in 1853 as part of Australia's first passenger railroad and replaced in 1859. Today's steel bridge was completed in 1888 and served rail traffic until 1987. After a thorough renovation, it was reopened on May 12, 2006 at the beginning of the Commonwealth Games 2006 as a pedestrian and cyclist bridge. The bridge gained worldwide fame through the mobile sculpture The Travelers , which was installed on the bridge as part of the renovation and in which nine larger-than-life abstract figures symbolizing immigrants move back and forth across the bridge.

location

The Sandridge Bridge was built near the Yarra Falls , a former small waterfall where the water of the Yarra River changed from fresh to salt water . The falls were a traditional Aboriginal meeting place . Due to the availability of fresh water, the first white settlers under John Batman chose this place as the location for their new Melbourne settlement in 1835. The shallow head zone of the waterfall was used as a river crossing in the first years of settlement. In the 1880s, however, the waterfall was blown up to allow ships to access upstream inland.

Today the bridge is located in Melbourne city center and connects the business district with the Southbank district .

history

Today's Sandridge Bridge is the third bridge at this point. All three bridges played an important role in Melbourne's development into a commercial city.

First bridge (1853-1859)

Drawing of Melbourne with the Sandridge Bridge (left) from 1855

Map of Melbourne with the railroad lines to Sandridge and St Kilda from 1888

After the gold rush began in Victoria in the early 1850s, the population there rose rapidly. Each week, dozens of ships in the Hobsons Bay , which gold mining and freight deposed on the beach. The Yarra River was too shallow and narrow for larger ships and so the immigrants and traders had to pay a lot of money for transport to Melbourne on a cart or ferry.

Businessmen saw this as an opportunity and formed the Melbourne and Hobson's Bay Railway Company . They built Australia's first passenger railway line between the suburb of Sandridge ( Railway Pier , later Station Pier ) and the city center ( Melbourne Terminus , now Flinders Street Station ). A single-track wooden bridge was built to cross the Yarra River in 1853 . When building the track, the wide Irish gauge of 1600 mm was used. The entire railway line was completed in 18 months and cost £ 388,000. The first steam locomotive left Melbourne Terminus on September 12, 1854 at 12:20 p.m. She needed 10 minutes for the 4.5 kilometer route.

Second bridge (1859-1888)

After the Melbourne and Hobson's Bay Railway Company opened another 4.5 km long railway line to St Kilda on May 13, 1857, the single-track bridge structure was replaced by a double-track Trestle bridge in 1859 . At the same time, the tight curve when entering the station was avoided by an unusually inclined guide, as is still visible today.

As early as 1861, over half a million passengers and over 150,000 tons of freight were transported over the bridge every year. In 1878 the state-run Victorian Railways Department took over the private railway company and the lines became part of a now 1,600-kilometer-long railway network that radiated out from Melbourne. Until the 1880s all tracks , locomotives and railroad cars were imported from the UK , after which time most of the equipment could be manufactured in Australia.

Third bridge (since 1888)

Sandridge Bridge (middle bridge) and Flinders Street Station in 1928

The Sandridge Bridge before restoration in 2005

The Sandridge Bridge today with South and North Banks

The current steel girder bridge was designed by the Victorian Railways Department . Construction by the designer David Munro began in 1886, and the opening could take place in June 1888. John Monash , who later became the commander of the Australian troops in World War I , is said to have been involved in the construction of the bridge as a young engineer.

The four-lane bridge consisted of two parts with two lanes each. The two western tracks led to Sandridge (today Port Melbourne ), the two eastern ones to St Kilda. It was the first four-lane railway bridge in Australia and one of the first bridges in the country to use steel instead of iron as a beam. At both ends of the bridge, the riveted steel beams rested on pillars made of basalt and brick, on the south side of the river the bridge was continued as a brick viaduct . Unusually for a railway bridge, the spans, pillars and gables above were decorated in great detail. The bridge is now on the Victorian Heritage Register .

In 1914, a larger mooring called the New Railway Pier (later Princes Pier ) was built next to Station Pier in Melbourne Harbor . This pier was the departure point for Australian warships during WWI and WWII . Thousands of soldiers drove over the Sandridge Bridge to the pier to sail from there to the battlefields in Europe and Asia. During World War II , Princes Pier was also the arrival point for American troops. After the end of the war, thousands of war refugees arrived there.

In 1925 the bridge was electrified and the wooden cover that had been used until then was replaced by concrete rail supports. The Sandridge Bridge was used for freight traffic until the 1950s and for passenger traffic until 1987. The last train in the direction of St Kilda ran on July 1, 1987, the last in the direction of Port Melbourne on October 10, 1987. The two railway lines were replaced by trams 96 and 109, which cross the Yarra River about a kilometer further downstream on the Spencer Cross Street Bridge .

Although the viaduct and railway embankment over the south bank were listed as historically significant heritage, they were demolished to make way for a casino , and only the segment over the river itself remained. The signal box at the northern end of the bridge from 1905, which regulated train traffic across the bridge and along the river, was also taken out of service. The building burned down in 2002, but it was renovated and since autumn 2009 it has housed a youth center for art called Signal .

In the 1990s, the City of Melbourne received several renovation proposals for the bridge, but none of them came to fruition. In 2001 the state of Victoria even tried unsuccessfully to find industrial partners to bring the bridge back into operation. Finally, in 2003, the Melbourne City Council and the Department of Sustainability and Environment took over the management themselves. They donated A $ 15.5 million to renovate the bridge, create a plaza called Queensbridge Square at the south end, and create connecting paths to the waterfront at the north end. The repair of the bridge, which took place in 2005 and 2006, was carried out by the Arup engineering office .

The bridge, plaza and connecting paths reopened on March 12, 2006, three days before the start of the 2006 Commonwealth Games . Only the eastern part of the bridge is accessible to the public, the western half of the bridge will continue to be stabilized and illuminated from below at night. The renovation ended up costing A $ 18.5 million.

Technical details

View under the bridge at the south end

The current bridge was constructed at an unusual 33 degree angle to the river bank. The total length of the girder bridge is 178.4 meters. It consists of a total of five sections which, viewed from south to north, measure 36.9 m, 36.6 m, 36.3 m, 36.9 m and 31.7 m. The bridge is 17 meters wide, the steel beams are 2.74 meters high.

The total of twelve bridge piers are made of iron filled with concrete and are arranged in four groups of three in the direction of the river, in order to minimize the influence of the tides on the bridge structure. The maximum clearance for ships is 4.7 meters at low tide and 4.1 meters at high tide. The minimum passage width between the groups of pillars is given as 18 meters.

As part of the renovation, a 50-meter-long ramp was installed for pedestrians and cyclists at the southern end of the bridge , which overcomes the height difference of about 4 meters that was created by the demolition of the viaduct.

The Travelers

The Travelers at the turn on the South Bank

As an artistic contribution, ten 7.5 meter high abstract figures were installed on the bridge during the renovation. Nine of the ten figures move back and forth across the bridge on chassis between the two parts of the bridge in a 15-minute sequence . They are intended to symbolize the various immigrants who traditionally came to Melbourne by train over the bridge. A tenth figure remains immobile on the river bank and symbolizes the Australian natives of Victoria. The installation, called The Travelers , was designed by the Lebanese artist Nadim Karam (Atelier Hapsitus, Beirut ).

The movement of the figures is controlled by software installed on a computer in the city. The figures can be controlled individually or as a group and perform any movements. They are usually “parked” overnight at the south end of the bridge. As soon as they are activated, which happens three times a day, they move in procession to preprogrammed points along the bridge and then return to their starting point. The figures move at a speed of 1.5 kilometers per hour.

Overview

Each of the characters represents a specific immigration period in the history of Australia . The individual periods were defined by the Australian historian James Jupp . For the figures, more than 3.7 kilometers of stainless steel were used in a total of 4455 individual parts. The figures are approximately 7.5 meters high and 5 to 10 meters wide. Their average weight is around 2.3 tons, their average surface just under 80 square meters.

Surname	period	Period	Length of steel	Weight	surface	Steel elements
Gayib	Aboriginal		223.5 m	7701 kg	121.6 m ²	198
First settler	Prisoners	1788-1866	328.7 m	1383 kg	62.53 m ²	349
Melbourne Beauty	Gold rush	1850-1890	234.5 m	1092 kg	46.99 m ²	310
Walker and his Tuckerbag	Assisted Migration	1830-1930	293.5 m	1224 kg	55.05 m ²	350
Shelter	Displaced persons	1947-1953	345.1 m	1463 kg	65.96 m ²	524
Urban wheel	Migration from Europe	1947-1983	383.0 m	1858 kg	78.08 m ²	447
Running couple	refugees	1958-2005	574.7 m	2609 kg	111.9 m ²	655
Butterfly girl	Migration from Asia and the Orient	1975-2005	356.6 m	1531 kg	68.58 m ²	494
Technoman	Students and professionals	1975-2005	658.0 m	2499 kg	113.3 m ²	650
Walking sun	Australian multiculturalism		368.2 m	1715 kg	71.56 m ²	468

Gayib

Figure Gayib

Gayib is the only immobile figure and is believed to represent the Aboriginal people who settled the continent about 50,000 years ago. It is estimated that between 250,000 and 750,000 Aboriginal people were living in Australia in 1788 . It is by far the heaviest of the figures and is located at the south end of the bridge in Queensbridge Square .

The figure was designed in collaboration with Aboriginal artist Mandy Nicholson. The winged creature with a spiral head stands on a rock and watches as the immigrants pass by. According to the artist, Gayib is supposed to soar into the sky at night, circling over the area and ensuring the well-being of all living beings.

First settler

Figure First Settler

The figure First Settler ("First Settler") represents the prisoners who were deported from the United Kingdom after the end of the American Revolution in 1781 no longer to America, but to Australian penal colonies . Between 1788 and 1840 80,000 prisoners , mainly British and Irish, were shipped to New South Wales and 66,000 to Tasmania . Between 1850 and 1866 a further 9,700 convicts came to Western Australia . Many prisoners were sentenced to seven years and assigned to rural employers. Most were released over time.

The figure represents a man with a flag and a shovel. According to the artist, after his arrival in Australia, the man put the flag in the ground, where it gave him shade and showed him the direction of the wind, and he worked the land with his shovel.

Melbourne Beauty

The figure Melbourne Beauty ("Beauty from Melbourne") is representative of the time of the gold rush in Australia . Gold was discovered in New South Wales in 1850, and in Victoria in the following years. The gold rush led to a massive increase in immigrants, which increased the population in Victoria from 77,000 to 538,000 people within ten years. In all of Australia, the number of non-indigenous people exceeded the number of indigenous people during this period. The majority of immigrants were English, but the country's Irish, Scottish and Chinese populations also grew rapidly. In the 1870s and 1880s there were further gold rush phases in Queensland and Western Australia, which also led to a strong increase in the population there.

The figure of a female beauty allegorically represents the attraction of gold. The mere mention of her name was enough to cause a rush, according to the artist, but no one could get close enough to see whether she was real or just an illusion.

Walker and his Tuckerbag

Figures Walker and his Tuckerbag , Shelter and Urban Wheel (from left to right)

In order to replace the prisoners, the British and colonial governments supported the migration of English people in the years after 1830 by at least partially assuming travel expenses. This time is represented by the character Walker and his Tuckerbag ("Wanderer with his fodder sack "). The migrants supported were manual workers, artisans and servants and were also intended to balance the imbalance between men and women. The largest number came to Queensland in the 1880s, with its population increasing from 210,000 to 493,000 people in the two decades to 1900. The migrants were almost exclusively UK nationals, with a few exceptions from Germany and Scandinavia . With the Depression in the 1890s, the support initially ended, but it was resumed after the First World War to replace the numerous fallen soldiers. During this second phase, some migrants from Italy , Greece and Croatia also came to the country. With the Great Depression in 1929, assisted migration finally ended.

The humanoid figure of the wanderer carries a large sack on its back and wanders through town and country in search of work. Over time, the wanderer collected anecdotes from the places he visited, put them in the sack and wandered on to trade and collect further, this is the characterization of the figure by the artist.

Shelter

With the end of World War II , the Australian government changed its immigration policy to compensate for the massive losses of Australian soldiers from the war. It now offered Europeans who were expelled or deported by the war between Germany and Russia , a large part of the travel costs to Australia. The figure Shelter ("protection") symbolizes this time. Most of the immigrants came from countries not previously represented in large numbers in Australia, such as Poland , Croatia , Hungary , Latvia and the Ukraine . They lived in refugee camps and were officially called New Australians ("New Australians"), popularly Balts ("Balten"). A total of 171,000 immigrants came to Australia in the six years from 1947 to 1953, the largest number of non-British immigrants in such a short period of time.

The figure represents a shelter that was randomly assembled from different pieces. According to the artist, these pieces consist of parts of the old homeland, dreams and memories.

Urban wheel

Sandridge Bridge, South Bank End

After the New Australians' refugee camps were dissolved, Australia began to attract more immigrants to Australia through agreements with other European countries. The first of these agreements was with Great Britain in 1946 and the last with Yugoslavia in 1971. Support varied from country to country and was most abundant in Great Britain and the Netherlands . However, many immigrants from Italy and Greece also came without support, becoming more numerous in the 1960s than ever before. Mainly British came to the country during this time, their number grew from 556,000 to 842,000 between 1961 and 1971. The support was reduced in the 1970s and finally ended in 1983. The character Urban Wheel ("Städtisches Rad") represents this time.

The figure shows a wheel with eight spokes and a saddle. According to the artist, the wheel moves horizontally as well as vertically in the city; it used to climb two-story houses, now skyscrapers.

Running couple

The figure Running Couple ( "Current Couple") stands for the refugees who arrived from 1956 to 2005 in the country. Australia had already taken in refugees from Nazism and communism in the 1930s and 1950s . In 1954 it signed the Geneva Refugee Convention . The first larger photos of refugees came from Hungary in 1956 and from Czechoslovakia in 1968 . As a result of the Vietnam War , many Vietnamese were accepted after 1975 ; between 1981 and 1991 their number grew from 41,000 to 122,000. After this was the largest number of Asians who were admitted into the country until then, the admission became controversial. The focus shifted from Asia back to Europe in the 1990s with the beginning of the Yugoslav Wars.

The figure shows a refugee couple who come from the same hometown, lost sight of each other during their escape and have now met again on the Yarra River.

Butterfly girl

Figure Butterfly Girl

The character Butterfly Girl ("Butterfly Girl") represents the migrants from Asia and the Orient. In 1901, the Australian Government severely restricted the immigration of non-Europeans through the Immigration Restriction Act . This White Australia Policy remained untouched for over 70 years and did not end until 1973 with the beginning of the wave of refugees from Indochina and the decline in migration from Europe. As a result, more and more immigrants from Asia and the Orient were admitted. In 2001, over 500,000 Chinese lived in Australia.

The figure shows a girl showing some specimens from her butterfly collection. However, she does not keep the butterflies for long, but instead releases them into the bush after a day, according to the artist.

Technoman

The Technoman ("Techno-Man") symbolizes the immigration of students and professionals since 1975. Up until then, Australian immigration policy was oriented towards workers. As the economy changed, the emphasis was now placed more on skills and education. Overseas students, particularly Asia, have been encouraged to enroll in Australian universities and colleges . The level of education of immigrant consultants, doctors and IT experts was above the Australian average. In addition to Asian countries, the majority of the immigrants came from New Zealand .

The figure is the most abstract of the ten sculptures and shows Cubist influences. According to the artist, the technoman is made of electromagnetic pulses, can change its appearance at will, speaks all programming languages and wanders through the data streams.

Walking sun

The glass panels contain information about each country that immigrants came to Melbourne from.

The last figure walking Sun ( "Wandering Sun") represents the multiculturalism in Australia. As the only figure besides Gayib , no period in Australian history is assigned to her. As society changed with the immigration of Europeans and Asians, it was slowly realized that these immigrants would not become "Australians" overnight. Multiculturalism has been part of Australian politics since the early 1970s. Despite some controversy in the 1990s, it is now widely accepted that Australia is and will remain a multicultural society.

The figure of a wandering sun represents a festive wheel of prosperity that, through its rotation, brings together different stories and elements, according to the description of the figure by Nadim Karam.

Glass panels

Between the sculptures and the pedestrian walkway, 128 glass panels have been placed along the bridge, providing information about the Aborigines and immigrants from different countries for reading. Each board represents a community of more than 1,000 immigrants from a country, communities between 100 and 1,000 immigrants are summarized on separate boards.

On June 11, 2007, 46 of the 128 glass panels were smashed by a vandal with the help of a sledgehammer. The destroyed glass panels were subsequently repaired, the repair cost almost 300,000 Australian dollars.

Web links

Commons : Sandridge Bridge - album with pictures, videos and audio files

Sandridge Bridge Precinct Redevelopment. City of Melbourne, accessed May 3, 2009 .
Sandridge Rail Bridge. National Trust of Australia, accessed May 3, 2009 .
Sandridge Bridge (picture gallery). OnlyMelbourne.com, accessed July 4, 2009 .
The Travelers, Melbourne. Arup, accessed May 3, 2009 .

swell

↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l ^m ⁿ ^o The Travelers and the Ten Periods of Australian Migration. (PDF) (No longer available online.) Factsheet, City of Melbourne, archived from the original on September 23, 2009 ; accessed on May 3, 2009 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.

^ ^A ^b Sandridge Rail Bridge. In: Trust Register. National Trust of Australia, accessed July 5, 2009 .

^ ^A ^b ^c Sandridge Railway Trail. (PDF; 2.7 MB) Museum Victoria, accessed on July 5, 2009 (English).

^ ^A ^b History of Rail in Australia. Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government, Australian Government, August 14, 2008, accessed July 9, 2009 .

^ Line data: St Kilda line. In: VICSIG - Infrastructure. www.vicsig.net, accessed on July 5, 2009 (English).

^ ^A ^b ^c Port Melbourne Flinders Street Railway Reservation, South Melbourne, VIC, Australia. Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts , Australian Government, accessed July 13, 2009 .

↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l ^m John Bahoric, Peter Bowtell and Paul Nicholas: The Travelers. (PDF; 1.2 MB) (No longer available online.) The Arup Journal 1/2007, formerly in the original ; accessed on May 3, 2009 . ( Page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.arup.com
^ ^A ^b Sandridge Railway Line Bridge. In: Victorian Heritage Register. State Government of Victoria, accessed July 13, 2009 .
↑ Princes Pier restoration. (No longer available online.) State Government of Victoria, June 12, 2009, archived from the original on June 27, 2009 ; accessed on June 15, 2009 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2
↑ Chris Banger: Rail passenger service withdrawals since 1960 . In: Newsrail (Australian Railway Historical Society (Victorian Division)) . March 1997, p. 77-82 .
↑ Invitation to Register: Expression of Interest for Signal Art Commission 2009. (PDF) (No longer available online.) City of Melbourne, November 6, 2008, formerly in the original ; accessed on June 6, 2009 . ( Page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2
↑ Signal homepage . City of Melbourne, accessed February 22, 2010 .
^ Sandridge Bridge. structurae.de, August 14, 2007, accessed June 6, 2009 .
↑ ^a ^b Chantal Rumble: Revamped bridge makes the journey worthwhile. The Age, March 13, 2006, accessed July 5, 2009 .
↑ Yarra River Boating Guide. (PDF) (No longer available online.) Parks Victoria, archived from the original on July 6, 2009 ; accessed on July 5, 2009 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2
^ John Bahoric, Paul Nicholas and G. Ormstron: Travelers: Design Collaboration and Digital Media. (PDF; 4.7 MB) (No longer available online.) Tsinghua Science and Technology, No. 13, pp. 234–240 , formerly in the original ; accessed on July 5, 2009 . ( Page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2
↑ Travelers tales to be writ large on Sandy Bridge. (No longer available online.) In: Victorian Legislation and Parliamentary Documents. State Government of Victoria as of May 8, 2005, archived from the original on March 7, 2012 ; accessed on July 5, 2009 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2
^ Daniella Miletic and Lawrence Money: Disbelief at vandal's attack on migrant tribute. The Age, June 14, 2007, accessed July 5, 2009 .
^ Joanne Sim: When less is more. The Age, August 3, 2010, accessed March 12, 2011 .

This version was added to the list of articles worth reading on July 8, 2009 .

[factsheet-1] ↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l ^m ⁿ ^o The Travelers and the Ten Periods of Australian Migration. (PDF) (No longer available online.) Factsheet, City of Melbourne, archived from the original on September 23, 2009 ; accessed on May 3, 2009 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2

[trust-2] A ^b Sandridge Rail Bridge. In: Trust Register. National Trust of Australia, accessed July 5, 2009 .

[trail-3] A ^b ^c Sandridge Railway Trail. (PDF; 2.7 MB) Museum Victoria, accessed on July 5, 2009 (English).

[railhistory-4] A ^b History of Rail in Australia. Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government, Australian Government, August 14, 2008, accessed July 9, 2009 .

[5] Line data: St Kilda line. In: VICSIG - Infrastructure. www.vicsig.net, accessed on July 5, 2009 (English).

[aus-6] A ^b ^c Port Melbourne Flinders Street Railway Reservation, South Melbourne, VIC, Australia. Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts , Australian Government, accessed July 13, 2009 .