William Jolly Bridge - Grey Street Bridge
Fully-constructed and opened during the worst period of
Great Depression in 1932, the
Grey Street Bridge, which is now well-known as the
William Jolly Bridge by the locals,
crosses the Brisbane River and connects Grey Street in
South Brisbane to Roma Street on
the west side of the Brisbane Central Business District.
The change of the bridge's name to William Jolly was done on
July 5, 1955 as tribute to Brisbane's city Council's first
mayor Lord William Alfred Jolly, who was also a Chairman of
the Bridges and Ferries Committee.
Bearing the motto, "Moving goods and people," the bridge
serves a very important landmark that linked transportation
and communication between both sides of the river, as well
as the economic and commercial improvement of the Southern
Brisbane area.
Nowadays, it has been a major roadway for
motorists who would stay away from the
congested traffic conditions in the Victoria Bridge. It
is composed of two lanes for passing vehicles in each
direction and a lane for cyclists and pedestrians as well.
It is reported that approximately 40,000 vehicles pass over
William Jolly Bridge on a normal weekday.
This bridge hails as Australia's first steel frame rainbow
arch type bridge and the first time
that Gunite or sprayed dry mix concrete was used
extensively for a construction project.
It was designed by civil engineer Alison Eavis Harding
Frew and was built by contractors
Evans Deakin and MR Hornibrook.
The project costed 7,000 pounds to construct in
a span of four years, from 1928 to 1932. Famous for its art
deco style, a lot of critics and commoners fall into the
misconception that majority of the exteriors of the bridge
was intentionally done for pure aesthetic purposes, such as
the concrete encasing which many have thought were
constructed to hide much of the structural steelwork of the
bridge.
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