I love driving over the Auckland Harbour Bridge. I was born and raised in this city so I've driven over it literally hundreds of times over the years. This is one side going up from the North Shore.
And this is going down the other side towards Auckland City, South Auckland and West Auckland. A little bit of history about it below:
"The Auckland Harbour Bridge picked up where the ferries left off. There was talk of a bridge across the Waitematā as early as 1860 and again between the wars, but the planners and politicians gave the green light only in 1946 when they made it central to the new motorway system they fondly believed would solve Auckland’s transport problems. The Westhaven reclamation at the southern end began in 1951.
For most of its history the Auckland Harbour Bridge has been a victim of its own success. The intended five lanes were reduced to four to save money. It opened on 30 May 1959 and in its first year averaged 13,493 cars a day, a shock for planners who had predicted 8250 a day by 1965. Between 1967 and 1969 the bridge was widened by adding two Japanese-designed dual-lane steel box extensions to its outside. The so-called ‘Nippon clip-ons’ bought some time but demand kept outpacing capacity. Traffic jams on the bridge even drove some people back to the ferries. The average daily flows of 80,000 vehicles in 1970 doubled to 165,000 by 2000."
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| This is how it looked under construction back in the 1950s. |
These days the bridge twice a day, one in the morning then again in the afternoon regularly gets gridlocked with bumper to bumper traffic because the city's population has increased so much.
10 comments:
Phew, what a story. That's a helluva lot of traffic .
I love the bridge, how it looks and the views when on it, but actually driving it I now find rather a nightmare - especially when the traffic is heavy or the weather is bad.
That historical bridge photo is fine photography
...BRIDGES are important!
That has to be a loonng bridge. I didn't know there was a bridge. We took the ferry and it was also a loonng lane. I like your new header picture, I like old cars. That Renault is larger than the ones I am used to seeing. Is the one with the portholes a 1950's Buick?
p.s. I forgot to sign in with Tom earlier. Sorry to be late, it is early morning where you are already. We are set for a bunch of cold days, three of the mornings will be well below freezing.
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Quite a story that long bridge has! Thank you for the interesting read!
And this is everywhere in the world. Build in the fifties or sixties is now running out of space. Estimating for the future still proves to be a difficult business, especially now.
Very cool. I used to enjoy looking at and driving over the San Francisco bridges.
"That's interesting. Was he parking or waiting in traffic?" neither he was driving/riding.
Wow! Now that´s heavy traffic. The bridge is defying gravity on the last shot. Engineering Marvel that is.
Great bridge I hope you have a lovely week ahead
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