The first Princes Bridge

The new bridge after it was first opened in 1888

Melbourne's grandest and oldest Bridge, Princes Bridge was styled on London's Blackfriars Bridge. Listed on the Victorian Heritage Register, Princes Bridge connects St Kilda Road to Swanston Street alongside Flinders Street Railway Station.

A bridge has crossed the river at this point since 1845, the present Princes bridge being the third bridge across the Yarra at that location. The first two bridges built in 1845 (timber) and 1850 (stone) were built in response to a population explosion in Melbourne from several hundred to over 80 000 people, caused by the gold rush. In addition to the increase in traffic crossing the bridge, there was also a need to handle increased shipping traffic on the Yarra River and the river was widened to cope with this.
Construction on the new bridge began in 1886 and was completed in 1888 in time for the second International Exhibition to be held in Melbourne. By that time the Yarra River had been heavily modified both upstream and downstream and the major floods of the early years were becoming less common.
Constructed by David Munro to a design by Jenkins, D'Ebro & Grainger, it replaced an earlier timber bridge designed by Scottish born bridge designer David Lennox, whose earlier bridges in Sydney include the Lansdowne Bridge and Lennox bridge in Parramatta. John Grainger (1855-1917), the father of the Australian composer Percy Grainger, did the majority of the design work for the bridge, which was opened on 4 October 1888.

Named in honour of HRH the Prince of Wales, later King Edward VII, Princes Bridge is dominated by squat half columns, resting on giant piers, contrasting with its delicate iron girder piers. The bridge's decoration, in typical Victorian era style, includes mouldings and balustrades along the top of the bridge and lamp standings crowning the giant half columns, with the coats of arms of the municipal councils who contributed towards the cost of construction decorating the spandrels. The bridge's abutments, piers and wing walls are made of bluestone quarried from Footscray.

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