Tom Ugly's Bridge is one of three major road crossings of the Georges River in southern Sydney, New South Wales. It consists of two separate bridges that carry the Princes Highway, linking the St George area at Blakehurst to the Sutherland Shire at Sylvania.
The 1929 Bridge viewed from the boat ramp at Tom Ugly's Point (Sylvania)
About that name . . .
Tom Ugly's Bridge took its name from the geographical feature at the Southern end of the bridge known as Tom Ugly's Point, a name by which it had been known for over 80 years prior to the construction of the bridge.
There are several theories about the origin of the name, the most popular being:
- It was named after a local resident Tom Huxley who was, because of their difficulty with pronouncing the letter 'x', referred to by the local aborigines as 'Tom Ugly'. Descendants of Thomas Huxley have asserted that he was indeed a land owner in the area at one time, but there are no official records confirming this.
- It's a corrupted pronunciation of the name of a local Aboriginal man, Tow-weiry, who lived in the area and died about 1846.
- It derives from the tale of a one-legged man, possibly an army deserter or a boat operator, called either 'Tom Woggleg' or 'Wogul Leg Tom', either because of a mispronunciation of 'wooden leg', or from the local Aboriginal dialect word for 'one'.
- It was a mispronounced version of the name of a local fisherman by the name of Tom Illigley.
Pick one or create your own. This is Australia, a land of legends, after all.
Whatever the origin of the name, it was only
officially adopted as the name for the bridge in the early 1970s to avoid confusion after the construction of the Captain Cook Bridge (at Taren Point) in 1965 and the Alfords Point Bridge in 1973, although locally it had always been referred to as Tom Ugly's Bridge.
The original steam-powered punt approaches the northern (Blakehurst) shore c. 1890
Sorry about the picture size. Things were much smaller in those days.
Tom Ugly's Point Ferry
Tenders were called to construct a punt (Australian for 'vehicular ferry') at Tom Ugly's in 1864. and a hand operated punt service from Tom Ugly's Point (Southern, or Shire side) to Horse Rock Point (Northern, Blakehurst, or 'eeyew, over there' side commenced. Towards the end of the 1870s, however, a couple of factors created one of those 'something must be done' situations. A series of cable breaks (we're talking 'rope' here) almost caused a few disasters, as well as seriously disrupting commerce in the rapidly-growing Shire and the final straw seems to have come when there was something of a revolt caused by the punt's recalcitrant 79-year-old operator who had fallen into the habit of conscripting passengers to help him wind the cables.
In 1882 a steam powered ferry with nice, shiny steel cables was brought into service, reducing the crossing time to less than 10 minutes. The punt was 16 metres (54 feet) long and had a 3.4 m (11 ft) wide roadway and was capable of carrying six horse-drawn vehicles. By 1898 a larger steam-driven ferry began operation, capable of carrying 100 passengers and 15 vehicles. A new punt capable of carrying 28 vehicles and making the crossing in three minutes was installed in 1922.
The Sylvania side some time during the 1920s. The smaller picture shows
the original punt landing ramp as it is today (still in use as a boat ramp)
This is pretty much the spot that MG mentioned in Post #2461
A night shot taken in 2010 from the same place as the previous (inset) picture
A lifetime ago my Dad used to take us down here for fish and chips about once a
fortnight and we'd sit and watch the activity on the river while we had our dinner
After WWI, even with two ferries operating, delays of several hours had become the norm and weekends/public holidays were the stuff of nighmares. Once again, Something Had To Be Done and in 1923 meetings between Sutherland Shire Council and the Minister of Public Works produced a commitment to construct a 30-foot carriageway as well as a six-foot pedestrian path. Later that year a bill was introduced into the New South Wales Parliament enabling the construction and the foundation stone for the bridge was laid on 7 June 1924. The bridge construction was funded by Sutherland Shire Council with borrowed money which was to be repaid by a toll on the bridge once it was opened.
The 1929 Bridge
The bridge consists of six steel truss spans forming a total length of 499 m (545 yds). It was designed by Percy Allan, who designed many bridges in New South Wales, including the Pyrmont Bridge at Darling Harbour. When it was opened, it was the longest bridge in Australia.
The crossing was first opened for traffic on 26 April 1929, and officially opened by Sir Dudley de Chair, the Governor of New South Wales, on 11 May 1929. It was then known as the 'George's River Bridge'. The river, incidentally, was itself named for King George V (r. 1910 - 1936).
Tom Ugly's - the wooden wharf on the southern side used to be the best flathead spot in all of Sydney. Was very sad when that all went away with the construction of the new bridge.
Not quite the original, but still a good place to catch some lizards
This is the Clare Street jetty, about 500 m upstream from the old one
The toll was collected on the Sylvania (Shire) side of the bridge by toll collectors standing on the road. (tolls were removed in 1952 when the bridge loan was repaid) The road was one lane in each direction in the 1940s and 1950s, and was later converted to become three lanes, with two lanes in the direction of the peak traffic flow until the opening of the second bridge.
Yes, there were some scary moments.
Resurfacing the roadway in the 90s
In 2006, the original lead paint was removed by sandblasting. In order to protect the environment and nearby residents they did it one truss at a time by building ginormous box thingies over them with a massive air extraction system. Looked pretty silly, but worked a treat, apparently.
The 1987 Bridge
A second bridge, which opened on 17 October 1987, was built adjacent to the old one to alleviate traffic congestion. It's a plain-looking concrete beam bridge and about as aesthetically pleasing as a train smash. Quite a few people remain pissed off to this very day that they didn't duplicate the look and feel of the old bridge, but I won't name any names just at the moment.
The new bridge was designed to carry four lanes of traffic. During repair work on the 1929 bridge it has been configured both for one lane northbound and three lanes southbound, as well as two lanes in each direction. The current configuration is for three lanes southbound on the 1987 bridge, and three lanes northbound on the 1929 bridge.
The two bridges aren't quite parallel, being approximately 20 m (65 ft) apart at the northern end and 100 m (325 ft) apart at the southern end.
You are about to enter the Shire. Please have your passport ready.
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