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Kingfisher on the cat...

The second and current Albert Bridge was built in 1895.[5] It was designed by Henry Charles Stanley, Queensland's Chief Engineer of Railways from 1891 to 1901 and is considered his major work.[2] He designed a "Hogsback" steel truss bridge on masonry piers. In designing the bridge as two long spans with one central pier, he tried to minimize the obstruction to flood waters created by multiple piers, which had been the downfall of the first bridge. Innovations in the design included the attachment of cross girders, protection against derailment, provision against strong wind gusts, and provision for free expansion under varying temperatures. The working drawings and specifications were prepared by FL Keir of the Chief Engineer's office and were completed by mid-1893. Keir was also the resident engineer on the site. A condition of the construction contract was that as much of the work as possible be done in Queensland. Messrs McCormick erected a workshop adjacent to the site at Indooroopilly, and imported machinery necessary for constructing the superstructure and the caisson for the central pier. Up to 240 persons were employed on-site at any one time, and quarry workers provided freestone from Pearson's quarries at Helidon, the bluestone in the concrete from Jenkin's Bundamba quarry, and the granite for the bedstones and cutwater quoins from Mount Crosby. In 1895 the bridge was the largest in Australia of local manufacture. The most difficult aspect of the work was the construction of the central pier and its foundation caisson. The latter weighed about 230 long tons (230 t), rested 81 feet (25 m) below the high water mark, and was sunk 2 feet (0.61 m) into the rock. The riverbed sand and gravel could be dredged, but divers extracted the rock manually.[1] The southern span was erected above what remained of the former bridge and was extended to the center pier. The old pylons were then removed.[1] The northern truss was floated into position. The shore end rested on two trolleys, and when the tide was at its highest, specially constructed staging on an old bark took the weight of the other end of the truss from temporary piles. Winches were then used to pull the hulk across the river toward the center pier, to which the truss was attached. The bridge was integral to the southwest railway system linking Brisbane with Ipswich, the Darling Downs, and southeast Queensland. With increased traffic, it was supplemented with an adjacent upstream rail bridge in 1957, which together remained the only Brisbane River rail crossing prior to the construction of the Merivale Bridge in 1978. The Albert Bridge currently handles only passenger traffic. Source: www.wikiwand.com/en/Albert_Bridge,_Brisbane The cores of the earlier bridge abutments were widened and heightened to take the new superstructure. Parapets were constructed after the trusses had been fixed in place and were completed in November 1895.[1] When opened the bridge also catered for pedestrian traffic,[1] until the construction of the nearby Walter Taylor Bridge in 1937.

Of the Australian capital cities which closed their networks between the 1950s and 1970s (only Melbourne and Adelaide retained trams, although Adelaide only had one line in operation), Brisbane was the last capital city to close its tram network. Despite the decision to shut down the network, Brisbane's trams were held with great affection by locals, and their removal was termed "one of the most appalling urban planning mistakes in the city’s history".[2] There have been ongoing proposals since the early 1990s to reinstate a functional tram network. Through the 1940s and 1950s, the tram system enjoyed strong political support within the council, which continued to expand the tram network and upgrade its fleet with some of the most advanced trams in Australia.[3] Trolleybuses were introduced in 1951. The last tramway to open was in March 1961.[1] Clem Jones became Lord Mayor of Brisbane the same year, and all new route construction was canceled.[1] The decline of the electric street transport systems By 1948 Brisbane's trams failed to return a profit as they could not compete with the more efficient bus services.[3] Urban development, often well away from public transport, the rise of suburban shopping centers, and the relative decline in the cost of motorcars meant that as elsewhere, Brisbane's public street transport system increasingly had to compete with the private motor car and patronage slowly declined from a post-war peak of 148 million passenger journeys in 1946 to approximately 64 million passenger journeys in 1968. Political support for the tram system waned in the 1960s, particularly so after the Paddington tram depot fire on 28 September 1962. 67 trams were destroyed, which represented 20% of the entire fleet.[3] Brisbane's Lord Mayor Alderman Clem Jones was a pro-freeway and private car. The Kalinga, Toowong, Rainworth, and Bulimba ferry routes closed in December 1962.[4] The Brisbane Tramway Museum Society was formed in 1968 to preserve some of Brisbane's trams. At present the museum has 24 Brisbane trams in its collection, with 6 operational; California type tram 47, Ten Bench tram 65, Baby Dreadnought tram 99, Dropcentre tram 341, Four Motor tram 429, and the last tram built and officially operated in Brisbane, Four Motor Phoenix tram 554. Tramway operations commenced at the museum at Ferny Grove in 1980. Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trams_in_Brisbane