Prince's Bridge & City Terminus of Railway. STGill Melbourne c1857

by Gill, Samuel Thomas

Antique Print of Melbourne Railway Terminus and Princes Bridge c1857.

Original steel engraving by James Tingle recording the single-span sandstone bridge, drawn by Samuel Thomas Gill (1818-1880) for Victoria Illustrated published in Melbourne circa 1857.

Prince's Bridge was named in honour of Prince Edward. In the background is the longest single span bridge in world. This second bridge across the Yarra in Melbourne, was built in sandstone, between 1846 and 1851. It was known as Lennox's Bridge after the designer.

In 1835 there was no fixed crossing of the Yarra River in Melbourne. When private ferries and punts proved insufficient for the growing demand, a wooden trestle toll-bridge was built in 1840 by a private company. A year later, the discovery of gold resulted in a great population increase.

The widening and deepening of the river above and below the bridge to accommodate increasing river traffic and to minimize flooding, also created a need for a larger bridge. To replace the pictured sandstone one, in 1886, the current bluestone bulwark-supported iron bridge was designed by John Grainger (1855-1917) (father of Australian composer Percy Grainger), and construction was supervised by David Munro.