Australia's Bridges: Story Bridge across the Brisbane River in Queensland

March 2011 (-27.463 deg., 153.036 deg.) Story Bridge over the Brisbane River

After the ferry turned around at the Gateway Bridges, we travelled back upstream for about six miles to Central Brisbane and the Story Bridge.

Despite the floods, downtown Brisbane continues to grow. It's the third largest city in Australia and its also a very nice place to live or to visit. Just as the Harbour Bridge dominates the waterfront in Sydney, the Story Bridge seems equally prominent on Brisbane's waterfront. 

This bridge has a steel cantilever through truss, which used to be popular for spans of around 1000 ft (the Story Bridge has a 925 ft center span). We don't build this kind of bridge anymore in California but we still have plenty of them that need maintenance and repair. The reinforced concrete tower bases are nicely proportioned and painted white, which is a nice touch.


Construction on the bridge began in 1935 (during the Depression), it was completed in 1940, and helped ease congestion in Central Brisbane. The bridge (as is usually the case) was named after a politician who was instrumental in getting the project funded.

Australia's Bridges: Story Bridge across the Brisbane River in Queensland by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.