Monorail crossing Pyrmont Bridge, with Sydney CBD in the background. Sydney Tower (Centrepoint) can be seen on the skyline.
Sydney’s Pyrmont Bridge crosses over Darling Harbour to join Sydney with the peninsula of Pyrmont.
The bridge was the first swing bridge in the world to be powered by electricity.
It opened to allow ships and boats in and out of Cockle Bay, which is now called Darling Harbour.
When closed to shipping, Pyrmont Bridge was the main road artery in and out of Sydney city from the north-west.
The Pyrmont Bridge Road carried traffic along Victoria Road through Drummoyne to Gladesville, Ryde, Parramatta and beyond.
Nowadays that traffic goes over the very impressive Anzac Bridge, but that’s a modern engineering marvel. It replaced the much-smaller swing bridge running past the White Bay Container Terminal. That too, like Pyrmont Bridge, used to be an electric-operated swing bridge.
Today Sydney’s Pyrmont Bridge is used by thousands of pedestrians and bicycle riders who commute to and from the Sydney central business district (the CBD) for work. It is also popular with visitors to the city.
You can walk from Market Street in the city to the restaurants and shops of the Darling Harbour shopping centre, to visit the Sydney Maritime Museum, or to go to the Casino or Theatres at Star City in Pyrmont – just across the water from Cockle Bay.
Picture Credit: David Harvey.
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