Princes Bridge

Princes Bridge
Coordinates	37°49′09″S 144°58′06″E
Carries	trams, road vehicles, pedestrians, cyclists
Crosses	Yarra River
Locale	Melbourne, Australia
Official name	Princes Bridge
Characteristics
Design	Arch bridge
History
Opened	4 October, 1888
Location

The Princes Bridge is a historic bridge that crosses the Yarra River in Melbourne, Australia. The bridge connects Swanston Street on Yarra River's northern bank to St Kilda Road on the southern bank.

This bridge is the third to have existed on this site, the first being a wooden trestle bridge which opened in 1844, later replaced by a single span sandstone bridge designed by David Lennox which opened in 1851. The sandstone bridge was at the time the longest single span bridge in the world. It lasted for a good thirty-five years until an increase in traffic across the bridge and the need to widen the river required that a longer bridge was built.

The present bridge is named after Edward, Prince of Wales and was built between 1886 and 1888. It opened on 4 October 1888 and is 30 metres (99 feet) wide and 120 metres (400 feet) long.

The bridge is listed on the Victorian Heritage Register.

The Princes Bridge was designed by John Grainger (1855-1917), the father of the Australian composer Percy Grainger.

It was restored for the 2006 Commonwealth Games.

External links

A lamp on the bridge

• Federation Square web site History of the Federation Square site, including a PDF file documenting some of the history of Princes Bridge.