Historic crossing: Margaret’s bridge memories span Tassie generations

Margaret McMaster could be forgiven for thinking the new Bridgewater Bridge is a bit old hat. After all, the 99-year-old has been here before.

Margaret McMaster of New Norfolk can remember walking to school across the old Bridgewater Bridge. Picture: Nikki Davis-Jones

Margaret McMaster could be forgiven for thinking the new Bridgewater Bridge is a bit old hat.

After all, the 99-year-old has been here before.

Walking to school across the original convict-built wooden span in the early 1930s, Ms McMaster can vividly recall the excitement of the current bridge’s construction and unveiling in 1946.

But acknowledging that time and technology both move on, the lifelong Derwent Valley resident declared she was as eager as anyone to travel over the new $790 million Granton to Bridgewater link once it opens later this year.

A historic photograph of the Bridgewater Bridge in the 1920s.

And Ms McMaster knows the latest model will be significantly safer than the rickety, narrow structure she once had to share with horse-drawn wagons and herds of livestock nearly a century ago.

“I used to walk across the wooden bridge from Granton to school in Bridgewater with my brother, Greg,” she recalled.

“They used to have a big livestock sale every fortnight, which would finish just as we were coming out of school.

“And they’d be driving the sheep and the cattle across the bridge, with men cracking whips and dogs barking, and the whole bridge shaking.

“The road wasn’t very wide, so we got out of the way by stepping onto small ledges built on the side of the bridge.

“There were only about two or three of these little platforms, so you had to race to get onto one.

Margaret McMaster of New Norfolk can remember walking to school across the old Bridgewater Bridge. Picture: Nikki Davis-Jones

“They were just wooden cages really, and you could see the river below through gaps in the planks.

“If you dropped anything, it would fall straight into the water.”

Ms McMaster recalled the outbreak of World War Two during her final years of school, when sentries were posted at either end of the bridge to protect the critical infrastructure from potential enemy attack.

Around the same time, locals noticed the first signs of a new project under construction.

“On the way home from school we saw divers coming out of the water, and we watched them unscrew their helmets and take off their boots,” Ms McMaster said.

“They had been down there in the river building the foundations of the bridge.”

The former Granton resident, who has since moved upriver to New Norfolk, can remember a time when the view across to Bridgewater contained nothing but paddocks, sheep, and the occasional hay bale.

The historic building near the current bridge where Margaret once lived. Margaret McMaster 98 of New Norfolk can remember walking to school on the old Bridgewater Bridge as a child which was the bridge before the current one in use. Picture: Nikki Davis-Jones

Today, the northern vista is dominated by houses, commercial buildings, and one gigantic new bridge.

But experience tells Ms McMaster that locals will get used to the change in no time at all.

“I didn’t know how big it was going to be, because it has certainly taken over the place a bit, hasn’t it?,” she said.

“But I know that it’s going to be better than the bridge we have now.

“During the construction period, different people have said to me ‘Marg, I hope you get to see the new bridge finished’.

“So it will be so nice to ride across it once it’s finally done.”

Originally published as Historic crossing: Margaret’s bridge memories span Tassie generations