Fairfield Bridge has marked a major milestone by celebrating its 75th birthday.
Although still standing strong, the bridge is known to have a chequered past.
During the building of bridge foundations, an excavator came across a burial cave in the bank of the river and several preserved Maori heads were
discovered.
Later in 1991, 54 years after the bridge was created, a reconstruction project costing NZ$1.1million took place as the bridge was suffering from the effects of 'concrete cancer'.
This was due to unsuitable ingredients found in the concrete mixture, causing fractures in the structure.
Most recently in 2009, a man was charged and later convicted in 2010 for dangerous driving after riding a motor cycle over the arches of Fairfield Bridge.
The stunt was filmed and subsequently posted on Youtube.
A ferro-concrete structure, it was built by the Waikato County Council as an alternative crossing to the steel-arched Victoria Bridge in the city centre.
The area was, at that time, just beyond the northern boundary of Hamilton Borough.
The bridge was designed by Auckland's Stanley Jones and later opened on the March 25, 1937 by the then Minister of Public Works, Robert Semple.
In time, the bridge was categorised as a 'Historic Place' with the New Zealand Historic Places Trust in 1990.
