William Jolly Bridge, Brisbane

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

William Jolly

Official name	William Jolly Bridge
Carries	Motor vehicles, pedestrians and cyclists
Crosses	Brisbane River
Locale	Brisbane, Australia
Design	Steel frame arch bridge
Opening date	30 March 1932

The William Jolly Bridge is the sixth crossing of the Brisbane River in Brisbane, Australia. It is a steel frame arch bridge with an unusual concrete veneer and was opened to traffic on 30 March 1932 by Sir John Goodwin, the Governor of Queensland. The designing and supervising engineer was A.E. Harding Frew.

The William Jolly Bridge is shared by vehicular traffic, pedestrians and cyclists. It connects Grey Street in South Brisbane to Roma Street on the western edge of the Brisbane central business district. The bridge was conceived as a bypass for motor traffic between the southern suburbs and western suburbs of Brisbane to avoid increasing traffic congestion on the Victoria Bridge and on downtown streets such as George Street. It was constructed with the intention of building tram lines over it and although the tracks were never installed, anchor points for tramway overhead were installed at the top of each arch. These overhead anchor points remain in situ.

The bridge has two lanes for motor traffic in each direction, and a footpath on each side of the bridge. By 2006, the Brisbane City Council reported that on a typical weekday, 42000 vehicles crossed the bridge and at peak times both ends of the bridge suffered from congestion.

When opened, the bridge was known simply as the Grey Street Bridge. It was renamed to the William Jolly Bridge on 5 July 1955 in memory of William Jolly, the first Lord Mayor of Greater Brisbane.