Como Bridge, Como, New South Wales

Como bridge takes the Illawarra railway line across the Georges River between the Sydney suburbs of Oatley and Como. The original bridge, opened on Christmas Day 1885, remained in use until 1972 when a new double line, pre-stressed concrete structure alongside it was completed and began taking rail traffic. The old bridge was saved from demolition as it carries the pipeline from Woronora Dam to the reservoirs at Penshurst, a function that commenced in 1945 and continues today. The bridge is today used as a footbridge and cycleway.



The original Como Bridge is one of a number of wrought iron lattice girder bridges designed by John Whitton, Engineer-in-Chief of the NSW Railways, and used at a number of locations around the state. John Whitton was a prominent railway engineer in the late nineteenth century, being the man behind the famous Zig-Zag Railway which descends from Clarence in the Blue Mountains to Lithgow.

The iron members of the bridge were supplied by Cochrane & Co. of Pennsylvania, USA. By the time the bridgework had arrived by sea, a tent village had been built on the Como bank of the Georges River to house the 200 men employed in cutting the path through bush and levelling the ground in preparation for the laying of the single line track. In the midst of all this activity, stonemasons were forming the piers now encased in concrete that would carry the spans.



When the bridge components were landed at Botany, they were assembled on platforms mounted on barges. The platforms were built to a height where at high tide they would be marginally higher than the piers on which the spans would eventually rest. As each span was completed, the barge on which it had been constructed was towed to Como and positioned at high tide between the piers upon which the span would eventually rest. As the tide fell, the span lowered itself onto the piers at which time a team of men manoeuvred the span into place by hauling ropes attached to each end of the span. Once in its correct position, the span was bolted securely to the piers and the following day the next span was brought upstream and the process repeated.



Constructed under the supervision of Thomas Firth, the 2,195 tonne, 290m long bridge cost a total of 66,000 pounds. It was stress tested with three heavy steam locomotives in January 1886 before being brought into service a week later. Soon after the opening of the Illawarra railway line, train drivers found that the grade up the hill from the bridge to Mortdale was too steep for fully loaded coal trains. A deviation was built around the centre of Oatley in 1905 to reduce the grade for Sydney bound trains to a maximum of 1 in 80. The route taken by the original line is still clearly visible at both ends of the bridge.

At the Oatley end, the walking path follows the line of the original track. From the beginning of the houses, the line continued north, occupying the narrow strip of land between Oatley Parade and Oatley Avenue. It crossed Hurstville Road near the roundabout and proceeded over the rise to Mortdale station. This section of the original line remains and is visible from Hurstville Road. The two platforms of the original Oatley station are now buried under James Oatley Memorial Park.


Building the new Como Railway Bridge, 1971

Como railway station was built just beyond the bridge alongside the Como Pleasure Grounds, a convenient location considering the popularity of Como as a picnic and holiday destination for city dwellers in the first half of the 20th century. When the new bridge was built, the station was moved some half a kilometre south. The disused station platform still exists and can be seen beyond the cyclone fencing where the line left the bridge.


Gauntlet track on Como Bridge

The line across the bridge was laid as Gauntlet track. Taking up slightly more width than a normal single track but not as much a double track, Gauntlet track is always four rails of the same gauge, interlaced on the same set of sleepers to allow two way running on a single track bed. Trains running in opposite directions did not share the same track, thus negating the needs for points at either end of what was effectively a single line bridge.

Como Bridge Walk

A leisurely afternoon stroll across the old Como Bridge has become somewhat of an institution for many residents of the St George district in Sydney's south. Spanning the Georges River, the former railway bridge can be approached from either end via a level walking path. A visit to the restaurant or marina at the Como Pleasure Grounds for lunch or a cup of coffee, hire a boat, or perhaps a enjoy picnic in the nearby park make it all the more worthwhile. Easy walk.

Meadowbank Railway Bridge

Meadowbank Railway Bridge is an identical twin of Como Bridge. Like Como Bridge, it is now used as a pedestrian and bicycle way across the Parramatta River. Meadowbank Railway Bridge bridge opened in 1886 when the Sydney and NSW rail systems were undergoing a period of rapid expansion.

The Meadowbank Railway bridge is a six span wrought iron lattice girder bridge, on the Main North Line, between Rhodes and Meadowbank. The wrought iron structure and cast iron cylinders were fabricated in England and shipped out to Australia, and the above-track sections were locally made steel lattice trusses. The bridge was erected bu local contractor Amos Bros. at a cost of 69,000 pounds. The ramp at the end of the road is the site of the original punt crossing the Parramatta River, which was in service from the 1830s until the opening of the Ryde Bridge in 1935.

Its use as a railway bridge ended in May 1980 when it was superseded by a parallel box girder bridge. Out of service for 20 years, it became a cycle and pedestrian path in April 2000. The bridge has deteriorated since it was made redundant in 1980, but even in its corroded state it is still an elegant structure surviving from the first major programme of iron bridge construction in the colony.

There were twelve lattice wrought iron railway bridges on the NSW railway network built between 1871 and 1887 and Meadowbank was the eleventh. The earlier ones, which include Albury (Murray River), Dubbo (Macquarie River), Wellington (Macquarie River), Cowra (Lachlan River), Narrandra (Murrumbidgee River) and Wagga Wagga (Murrumbidgee River) - the second oldest bridge out of the twelve - had closer spaced lattice and the cross girders were still framed into the side of the bottom of the main member. The later lattice bridges had a wider lattice spacing which was carefully designed to allow the regular placement of the cross girders between the lattice members on top of the main bottom chord members. In that way the load was carried directly from cross girder to lattice girder.


Railway bridge over the Murray River, Albury