Dublin Street bridge could appeal to tourists and cyclists alike in the future. Photo / Bevan Conley
Dublin Street bridge could appeal to tourists and cyclists alike in the future. Photo / Bevan Conley
Opinion by Rob Rattenbury
Rob Rattenbury is a retired police officer who lives in Whanganui. He has written a weekly column for the Chronicle since 2019.
OPINION
So with a bit of luck we could all be humming over a new Dublin Street bridge across our beautiful river sometime around 2030.
Isay humming because I’m guessing by then there will be a lot of electric vehicles on our roads.
I’ll probably be still chugging in my, by then, 16-year-old Ice (internal combustion engine) car, quite happy. Or maybe EVs will have come down hugely in price and are more accessible to all so I’ll be humming too.
Anyway I’m looking forward to it all. I’ve written a couple of articles about our beautiful old bridge, a harking back to those quieter times but now not fit for purpose.
Recently I commented in this column about the idea of keeping the old bridge, a whimsical thought, but unknown to me at the time I have since heard there is apparently a bit of a following in town to keep the old bridge. To keep it as a walking and cycling bridge.
One good reason for keeping the old structure, if its foundations are still sound, is it carries all the services across to Whanganui East. Have you ever walked or boated under the bridge and looked up? It’s full of pipes and stuff. It’s a framework for those little bits and pieces Whanganui East actually needs to operate as a community, pipes and cables and such stuff.
Being a realist I know that, at some stage, the old bridge may have to go. When you look around the world at the age of some bridges, especially in the old world, our really not-so-old Edwardian structure may still have another one or two hundred years left in it if it is cared for, tended and used by the community.
It is a unique structure. Have you noticed why, when you are cycling or walking from Whanganui East towards town that you are walking uphill? The bridge is not horizontal. It was built with a slope so Mr Hatrick could continue to voyage up and down the river with his paddle steamers. The boats could hug the right bank, the higher end of the bridge. It is really noticeable if you are running around the bridges, a bit of a puff one way and a cruise the other way.
Like many places in our town there are stories about the old bridge from days past, social history. I have one or two from my police days, stories of helping people in some distress on the bridge. Stories that I recall often as I cross it. Thankfully stories with great outcomes.
I like the old bridge. I just like old buildings and bridges. Whanganui is one of the few places in the country that still has much of its Victorian and Edwardian infrastructure intact.
It would be nice to keep the old bridge as part of that, perhaps paint it up using our local artists and their skills, replace that nice lighting that was started some time ago, extended right across the bridge on both sides, close it to normal traffic, but used by walkers and cyclists.
Rob Rattenbury.
Use it as a community function area; the precedent was set some time ago when our Rainbow Community had a function on the bridge. Outdoors of course but we do have lovely weather here.
It could even cater for small shops or booths selling icecreams and such-like, community barbecues, art exhibitions. The list of possible uses for the old structure are only limited by our imaginations.
Many of you will have visited bridges overseas that have buildings on them. I often think of the Pulteney Bridge in Bath, England, dating back to 1769. You can cross it being unaware that you are on a bridge. Shops extend along both sides. Could a similar idea be viable for our bridge? It would be only the fifth bridge in the world with shops on it. Think of the tourism opportunities.
As we are humming past on our nice new bridge in a few years we can look across at something from a gentler and slower time still being used by locals and tourists. A colourful reminder of trams and horse-powered transport with a few very early cars chugging noisily back and forth, perhaps startling the horses.
Being a town that prides itself on its preservation of old structures, love of history and its vibrant art scene, think of the statement we could make to others. We could be really world famous.
