THIRD-GENERATION engineer Graham Priddle is an unabashed admirer of Bathurst's historic Denison Bridge.
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"It's 150 years old and it's still up here," he said this week of the bridge as he had a look at two recreated plaques that were recently installed in the centre of the structure.
The plaques - one from 1995 from the Institution of Engineers Australia (now Engineers Australia) and one from 1988 from the Department of Main Roads and NRMA - will be officially unveiled during a ceremony this Saturday, February 17.
Mr Priddle is a member of Engineers Australia, but he also has a long family connection to the region.
"My grandfather was shire engineer at Abercrombie [the former local government area that covered Rockley] from 1927 to 1944, during the war, and then he got transferred to the airfield construction squadron," he said.
"And then my father was here for the latter part of his secondary education and then he went to Sydney.
"And I'm third-generation engineer."
There are a few bridges on Mr Priddle's own CV.
"I was involved, in a minor way, with the railway bridge across the river [over the Macquarie on the south-eastern outskirts of Bathurst]," he said.
"And I was certainly involved with a few bridge replacements for the railways at Dunedoo and Gulgong and several other bridges around the Central West.
"And I was involved with a road bridge over the railway at Queanbeyan."
None, of course, can rival the Denison for staying power or significance.
As the recently installed plaques on the bridge explain, the American Pratt trusses on the Denison "were the first of their type in New South Wales" and the structure "proved the capabilities of colonial engineering skills and provided access from Bathurst and Western Districts to Sydney for 123 years".
The Denison Bridge was opened in June 1870 and was bypassed by the Evans Bridge in 1992 when the Great Western Highway was realigned.
And do the people of Bathurst as a whole realise what an historic gem they have sitting beside their modern highway?
"Well, probably they've tended to forget about it," Mr Priddle said.
The ceremony to mark the plaques at the bridge will start at 2pm this Saturday, February 17 and representatives of Transport for NSW, the NRMA and Engineers Australia will be attending.
History lesson
THE first bridge built over the Macquarie River was of laminated timber arches and was opened by - and named after - Governor Sir William Dension on January 1, 1856.
It was swept away by a flood in 1867 and was replaced by the present-day Denison iron girder bridge, which was opened in June 1870.
The bridge was the second metal truss and the first American Pratt truss in NSW, where British bridge technology had previously dominated.
Denison Bridge was listed on the NSW State Heritage Register in 2003, was placed on the National Engineering Heritage Register in 1995 and has been classified by the National Trust.
Down the river ...
MUCH further down the Macquarie, a new $220 million bridge is taking shape at Dubbo.
Major work got started in March 2023 on the new bridge, which is part of an upgrade of the Newell Highway through the city, and enormous girders were being put in place last month.
The NSW Government says the 660-metre bridge - which hasn't been without controversy - will ease traffic congestion in Dubbo and enhance access across the Macquarie during floods.
