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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
National
Andrew Messenger

A bridge too far: Brisbane grapples with the multimillion-dollar cost of revitalising an icon

A boat slots on a river under a steel bridge
Brisbane’s mayor, Adrian Schrinner, says the Story Bridge will cost millions more to repair than it did to build back in 1940. Photograph: Darren England/AAP

When the ribbon was cut on Brisbane’s Story Bridge on 6 July 1940, it was not an auspicious time to open a new bridge. Five days earlier, the infamous Tacoma Narrows Bridge had opened in Washington State.

In just four months that structure would make engineering history by dramatically swingeing itself apart, a result of forces the engineering profession, at that time, did not understand.

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