April 2, 1966
In the Australian state of New South Wales (NSW), a dedication ceremony was held for a prestressed concrete box girder bridge carrying Warringah Road (now part of the route known as A38) across Middle Harbour. This six-lane, high-level structure is called the Roseville Bridge. Measuring 1,237 feet (377 meters) in length, it serves as a link between the suburbs of Roseville and Frenchs Forest in the northern area of NSW’s capital city of Sydney. In the time since its inauguration, this bridge has become a major route not only for motor vehicles but also cyclists and pedestrians.
The Roseville Bridge was officially opened by Robert Askin (1907-1981), who served as NSW’s premier from 1965 to 1975. Other NSW public officials on hand for this heavily attended ceremony included Philip Henry “Pat” Morton (1910-1999), who was both minister for local government and minister for highways from 1965 to 1975; Milton Morris (1924-2019), minister for transport from 1965 to 1975; and J.A.L. Shaw (1902-1983), commissioner for main roads between 1962 and 1967. Askin, who cut a ribbon as part of the inaugural festivities, proclaimed that the opening of the bridge was “a tremendous step forward.”
This structure was the second Roseville Bridge to be constructed in that vicinity. The original Roseville Bridge first went into service in 1924. After the debut of the present-day Roseville Bridge in 1966, the older version remained in use for pedestrians only until it was demolished in 1974. (The accompanying photo of the current version of the Roseville Bridge was taken in 2020.)
Photo Credit: Whophd (licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en)
For more information on both versions of the Roseville Bridge, please check out https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roseville_Bridge
A list of major bridges in Sydney is available at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_bridges_in_Sydney
Transportation History 
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