History

This page outlines the history surrounding the current Anzac Bridge, from Aboriginal occupation, early settlement, to the Glebe Island opening bridge. Historical images are available in the ‘Documents’ box at the bottom of the page.

Early settlement

The Anzac Bridge links Glebe Island in the west to Pyrmont in the east.  Glebe Island was part of a land grant made to the colony’s first chaplain, Richard Johnson, in 1789. The name was derived from the term Glebe, which means a plot of land belonging to an English parish church. Glebe Island was joined to the mainland in the 1850s by reclaiming the channel and building a causeway. Sydney’s first abattoirs opened on Glebe Island in the 1850s. As the population grew residents complained about the droving of cattle and sheep in the streets. In response to this issue and to provide better access for the growing suburbs, a timber bridge was constructed using Tasmanian blackbutt.

The first bridge

The first bridge, Blackbutts Bridge, completed in 1857, was a bridge with a manual swing span opening, to allow shipping into Johnstons Bay and the adjacent Blackwattle and Rozelle bays.The abattoirs were demolished in 1915 and in 1918 work commenced on building storage and shiploading facilities for grain. Sydney’s first container berths were on Glebe Island. Both the grain and container activities have moved elsewhere and the Glebe Island wharves are now mainly used by car-carriers. The grain silos remain, but are no longer in use.

The opening bridge

The existing steel swinging bridge opened in 1903 and is now the oldest bridge of its type in Australia. It was designed by Percy Allan, along with the Pyrmont Bridge which crosses Darling Harbour.  The swinging bridge replaced Blackbutts Bridge.

The bridge featured two fixed truss spans and an electronically operated swing span. The swing spans were among the largest in the world at the time the bridge was built and some of the earliest to be powered by electricity. The power came from the nearby Ultimo Power House which also powered Sydney’s trams. The four-lane bridge carried significant traffic loads and was in use until the opening of the current bridge.

The Anzac Bridge

The Anzac Bridge, originally named Glebe Island Bridge was opened on 3 December 1995 by the Premier of New South Wales, The Hon. Bob Carr MP. The bridge increased the capacity of the road network connecting the city and the western suburbs.

On Remembrance Day, 11 November 1998, the New South Wales Government bestowed the bridge to the NSW Returned Serviceman’s League for re-naming as ‘The Anzac Bridge’ and unveiled a monument of a digger bowed in silent reflection.  The monument is located at the western end of the bridge on the northern side. A second bronze statue, of a New Zealand digger, followed on the southern side in April 2008.

A handful of sand from Gallipoli rests under the foot of the digger as a permanent connection with comrades who fell and remain at the Gallipoli Battlefield in Turkey.