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164-566: The Prince Alfred Bridge is a wrought iron truss and timber beam partially-disused road bridge over the Murrumbidgee River and its floodplain at Middleton Drive, Gundagai , Cootamundra-Gundagai Regional Council , New South Wales , Australia. The heritage-listed road bridge was designed by William Christopher Bennett and built from 1864 to 1867 by Francis Bell . It is also known as Prince Alfred Bridge – Iron Road Bridge and Iron Bridge over Murrumbidgee River at Gundagai. The iron bridge

328-522: A British patent for a configuration of repetitive equilateral triangles that could support a road on either its top or bottom chord. Warren's name became synonymous with this form. The first major spans using this configuration were built in England, and English construction firms built prefabricated versions for use in the British colonies, especially India. Thomas Kennard then applied a more detailed analysis of

492-514: A bar, expelling slag in the process. During the Middle Ages , water-power was applied to the process, probably initially for powering bellows, and only later to hammers for forging the blooms. However, while it is certain that water-power was used, the details remain uncertain. That was the culmination of the direct process of ironmaking. It survived in Spain and southern France as Catalan Forges to

656-582: A carbon content of less than 0.008 wt% . Bar iron is a generic term sometimes used to distinguish it from cast iron. It is the equivalent of an ingot of cast metal, in a convenient form for handling, storage, shipping and further working into a finished product. The bars were the usual product of the finery forge , but not necessarily made by that process: Wrought iron is a form of commercial iron containing less than 0.10% of carbon, less than 0.25% of impurities total of sulfur, phosphorus, silicon and manganese, and less than 2% slag by weight. Wrought iron

820-610: A certain amount of population movement resulted. However, the current urban population is approximately 92,200. According to the 2021 census of Population, there were 53,677 people in the Albury part of the Albury – Wodonga Urban Centre. Albury is situated above the river flats of the Murray River, in the foothills of the Great Dividing Range . At the city's airport, Albury is 164 metres (538 ft) above sea level. Albury has

984-415: A federal executive until one could be formally elected. The city has a number of suburbs. Central Albury comprises the central business district (CBD) and lies between the railway line, the Murray River and Monument Hill. Much commercial activity is concentrated here, with Dean Street forming the axis of the main shopping and office district. A cultural precinct is centred on QEII Square, which includes

1148-470: A final product. Sometimes European ironworks would skip the shingling process completely and roll the puddle balls. The only drawback to that is that the edges of the rough bars were not as well compressed. When the rough bar was reheated, the edges might separate and be lost into the furnace. The bloom was passed through rollers and to produce bars. The bars of wrought iron were of poor quality, called muck bars or puddle bars. To improve their quality,

1312-629: A flood-peak in late spring due to snow-melt in the Murray and its tributaries' alpine headwaters. The flow is now effectively reversed, with low flows in winter and sustained, relatively high flows in late spring, summer and early autumn to meet irrigation demands, although the spring flood peak has been virtually eliminated. The water released from the base of the Hume Weir is unnaturally cold, at least 10 °C (18 °F) colder than it naturally should be. This flow reversal, temperature depression, and removal of

1476-425: A foundation in coarse gravel and detached pieces of rock, the deepest being founded about 9 metres (30 ft) below low water level. After the opening, work continued with construction of the rest of the high-level bridge with work expected to finish within eight months. The second configuration of the bridge was built by the twenty-three northern approach spans being replaced by a much longer structure which spanned

1640-534: A high degree of creative or technical achievement in New South Wales. The Prince Alfred Bridge is of state heritage significance as is an important work of a prominent designer, William Christopher Bennett, who made use of the design technology that was patented in England less than 15 years before the opening of the bridge (1853 the Warren and Kennard patent). Bennett's innovations include the support arrangements for

1804-463: A high silky luster and fibrous appearance. Wrought iron lacks the carbon content necessary for hardening through heat treatment , but in areas where steel was uncommon or unknown, tools were sometimes cold-worked (hence cold iron ) to harden them. An advantage of its low carbon content is its excellent weldability. Furthermore, sheet wrought iron cannot bend as much as steel sheet metal when cold worked. Wrought iron can be melted and cast; however,

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1968-481: A joint-stock company and built a substantial three span timber bridge over the Murrumbidgee River in order to direct traffic from the surrounding districts through the town. It was reported that as a financial speculation the bridge has proved successful. A similar bridge had been erected over the Murray River at Albury . The NSW Government was forced to act in order to turn the flow of wealth towards Sydney. Not only

2132-434: A low scale to supply the steel to the artisan swordmakers. Osmond iron consisted of balls of wrought iron, produced by melting pig iron and catching the droplets on a staff, which was spun in front of a blast of air so as to expose as much of it as possible to the air and oxidise its carbon content. The resultant ball was often forged into bar iron in a hammer mill. In the 15th century, the blast furnace spread into what

2296-449: A lower melting point than iron or steel. Cast and especially pig iron have excess slag which must be at least partially removed to produce quality wrought iron. At foundries it was common to blend scrap wrought iron with cast iron to improve the physical properties of castings. For several years after the introduction of Bessemer and open hearth steel, there were different opinions as to what differentiated iron from steel; some believed it

2460-413: A maximum above 35 °C (95 °F) occur in this summer period, with many cooler days. Mean mid winter maxima are 12 °C (54 °F) with many cloudy days, and is likewise the wettest season. Albury gets approximately 20 days per year featuring minima of below freezing, though the cloud cover tends to limit frost. Sleet may occur during the winter months, but settling snowfalls are very rare, with

2624-488: A mild, temperate climate , with cool, damp winters and warm to hot, mostly dry, summers. Under the Köppen climate classification , Albury has a humid subtropical climate ( Cfa ), but would have tendencies of a Mediterranean climate ( Csa ) as well. In high summer, the mean daily maximum temperature is 31 °C (88 °F) with low humidity; however, this is subject to substantial daily variation. An average of 17 days with

2788-609: A military role in World War II with the establishment of ordnance bases at Bandiana and Bonegilla . Proclaimed a city in 1946, Albury played a role in the post-war immigration to Australia with the establishment nearby of Australia's first migrant centre, the Bonegilla Migrant Reception and Training Centre in 1947. Albury's proximity to Wodonga has spurred several efforts to achieve some kind of municipal governmental union (see Albury-Wodonga ). In 1973, Albury-Wodonga

2952-459: A modest amount of wrought iron was refined into steel , which was used mainly to produce swords , cutlery , chisels , axes , and other edged tools, as well as springs and files. The demand for wrought iron reached its peak in the 1860s, being in high demand for ironclad warships and railway use. However, as properties such as brittleness of mild steel improved with better ferrous metallurgy and as steel became less costly to make thanks to

3116-703: A need. A public meeting was held in September at the Gundagai Court House and resolutions from the meeting together with a subsequent petition from the district were forwarded to Sydney for consideration by the NSW Government . The river crossing had become a major obstacle for travellers and teams following the Hume and Hovell route to the Riverina and Victoria , and there had been regular petitions and deputations to

3280-693: A new school was built in Olive Street on land which is now part of Albury Public School. The city's first mayor, James Fallon, was an innovator of the Public School , funding a demonstration High School to be built on Kiewa Streets. Albury High School opened in Kiewa Street in 1927. The Royal Commission on Sites for the Seat of Government of the Commonwealth report of 1903 recommended Albury (along with Tumut ) as

3444-539: A new town site had been chosen on the high ground north of the floodplain and its main street, Sheridan Street, became part of the Great South Road , subsequently the original Hume Highway until it was bypassed in 1977. On 30 January 1861 The Sydney Morning Herald reported that the NSW Legislative Assembly had rejected a motion for a road bridge at Gundagai due to lack of funds and lack of evidence of

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3608-589: A number of patented processes for that, which are referred to today as potting and stamping . The earliest were developed by John Wood of Wednesbury and his brother Charles Wood of Low Mill at Egremont , patented in 1763. Another was developed for the Coalbrookdale Company by the Cranage brothers . Another important one was that of John Wright and Joseph Jesson of West Bromwich . A number of processes for making wrought iron without charcoal were devised as

3772-410: A process for manufacturing wrought iron quickly and economically. It involved taking molten steel from a Bessemer converter and pouring it into cooler liquid slag. The temperature of the steel is about 1500 °C and the liquid slag is maintained at approximately 1200 °C. The molten steel contains a large amount of dissolved gases so when the liquid steel hit the cooler surfaces of the liquid slag

3936-645: A rare example of a substantial finished product produced completely by the Fitzroy Ironworks at Mittagong. The four pairs of cast iron cylindrical columns for the piers were made at the Fitzroy Iron Works in 56 sections. Each was two metres (six feet) long, two metres (six feet) in diameter, with a 29-millimetre (1.125 in) wall thickness and each weighed approximately one point eight tonnes; one point eight long tons (two short tons). They were delivered by bullock drays, although delays occurred in carting

4100-410: A refinery where raw coal was used to remove silicon and convert carbon within the raw material, found in the form of graphite, to a combination with iron called cementite. In the fully developed process (of Hall), this metal was placed into the hearth of the puddling furnace where it was melted. The hearth was lined with oxidizing agents such as haematite and iron oxide. The mixture was subjected to

4264-481: A single hearth for all stages. The introduction of coke for use in the blast furnace by Abraham Darby in 1709 (or perhaps others a little earlier) initially had little effect on wrought iron production. Only in the 1750s was coke pig iron used on any significant scale as the feedstock of finery forges. However, charcoal continued to be the fuel for the finery. From the late 1750s, ironmasters began to develop processes for making bar iron without charcoal. There were

4428-491: A small residential/farming community to the west, Ettamogah (home of the Ettamogah Pub ), Bowna and Table Top to the north, and Wirlinga and Lake Hume village to the east. Howlong (20 km west) and Jindera (16 km north) are the closest towns outside the Albury city area, and act as commuter dormitories as well as service centres for the local rural industries. Albury's houses and buildings are numbered using

4592-556: A special system introduced in 1920. The centre of the city, which is defined as the intersection of Dean and Olive Streets, is numbered 500, and all other houses are numbered depending on whether they are north, south, east or west of the centre. Lake Hume is situated on the Murray River 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) upstream of Albury. The Hume Dam (colloquially termed the Weir locally) wall construction took 17 years, from 1919 to 1936. A hydro-electric power plant supplies 60 MW of power to

4756-412: A strong current of air and stirred with long bars, called puddling bars or rabbles, through working doors. The air, the stirring, and the "boiling" action of the metal helped the oxidizing agents to oxidize the impurities and carbon out of the pig iron. As the impurities oxidize, they formed a molten slag or drifted off as gas, while the remaining iron solidified into spongy wrought iron that floated to

4920-566: A strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group in New South Wales for social, cultural or spiritual reasons. The item is of state heritage significance as it has special value to the engineering profession throughout the state, as demonstrated by the Engineers Australia Historic Engineering Marker. It also has a special association with travellers between Sydney and Melbourne, having carried Hume Highway traffic for over 100 years. Since

5084-435: A town was commissioned in 1838 by Assistant Surveyor Thomas Townsend who mapped out Wodonga Place (the present Wodonga Place) as the western boundary, Hume Street as the northern boundary, Kiewa Street to the east and Nurigong Street to the south, with Townsend Street being the only other north–south road, and Ebden and Hovell Streets being the two other east–west roads. Townsend proposed the settlement be named 'Bungambrawatha ',

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5248-424: Is redshort or hot short if it contains sulfur in excess quantity. It has sufficient tenacity when cold, but cracks when bent or finished at a red heat. Hot short iron was considered unmarketable. Cold short iron, also known as coldshear , colshire , contains excessive phosphorus. It is very brittle when cold and cracks if bent. It may, however, be worked at high temperature. Historically, coldshort iron

5412-574: Is Kevin Mack. Albury has a longstanding connection to conservative politics. Following the first convention in Canberra to form the Liberal Party of Australia , delegates, including Sir Robert Menzies , met for a second conference in Albury at Mate's Department Store between 14 and 16 December 1944. The delegates agreed on the structure of the party organisation, adopted a provisional constitution and appointed

5576-654: Is a major regional city that is located in the Murray region of New South Wales , Australia. It is part of the twin city of Albury-Wodonga and is located on the Hume Highway and the northern side of the Murray River . Albury is the seat of local government for the council area which also bears the city's name – the City of Albury . It is on the Victoria–New South Wales border. Albury has an urban population of 53,677 and

5740-400: Is a mix of residential and industrial areas, with the floodplains south of the railway line and freeway still used for farming and grazing. Flood mitigation works in the 1990s have dramatically reduced the risk of flooding in this area. North Albury was covered by orchards and vineyards in the first half of the 20th century, and a swamp existed where James Fallon High School now stands. After

5904-414: Is a more important measure of the quality of wrought iron. In tensile testing, the best irons are able to undergo considerable elongation before failure. Higher tensile wrought iron is brittle. Because of the large number of boiler explosions on steamboats in the early 1800s, the U.S. Congress passed legislation in 1830 which approved funds for correcting the problem. The treasury awarded a $ 1500 contract to

6068-538: Is a more sheltered site than the reservoir, generally attaining greater maximum temperatures but also lower minima. Rainfall is lower across the board. Albury is the largest city in the Federal electorate of Farrer , whose current representative is Sussan Ley of the Liberal Party . The previous Federal MP was Tim Fischer , who was leader of the National Party and Deputy Prime Minister of Australia . In State politics,

6232-513: Is an archaic past participle of the verb "to work", and so "wrought iron" literally means "worked iron". Wrought iron is a general term for the commodity, but is also used more specifically for finished iron goods, as manufactured by a blacksmith . It was used in that narrower sense in British Customs records, such manufactured iron was subject to a higher rate of duty than what might be called "unwrought" iron. Cast iron , unlike wrought iron,

6396-435: Is brittle and cannot be worked either hot or cold. In the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, wrought iron went by a wide variety of terms according to its form, origin, or quality. While the bloomery process produced wrought iron directly from ore, cast iron or pig iron were the starting materials used in the finery forge and puddling furnace . Pig iron and cast iron have higher carbon content than wrought iron, but have

6560-479: Is common in cast iron river piers. This does affect capacity, but is not yet causing signs of distress for this bridge. Archaeological potential is low. The integrity of the Prince Alfred Bridges is excellent. The original cast iron piers and wrought iron trusses are clearly visible. Although the arrangement of the deck has changed over the years, it is still timber as it was originally. The footway added in

6724-491: Is deceptive. Most of the manganese, sulfur, phosphorus, and silicon in the wrought iron are incorporated into the slag fibers, making wrought iron purer than plain carbon steel. Amongst its other properties, wrought iron becomes soft at red heat and can be easily forged and forge welded . It can be used to form temporary magnets , but it cannot be magnetized permanently, and is ductile , malleable , and tough . For most purposes, ductility rather than tensile strength

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6888-467: Is highly refined, with a small amount of silicate slag forged out into fibers. It comprises around 99.4% iron by mass. The presence of slag can be beneficial for blacksmithing operations, such as forge welding, since the silicate inclusions act as a flux and give the material its unique, fibrous structure. The silicate filaments in the slag also protect the iron from corrosion and diminish the effect of fatigue caused by shock and vibration. Historically,

7052-407: Is no longer manufactured commercially. Wrought iron was originally produced by a variety of smelting processes, all described today as "bloomeries". Different forms of bloomery were used at different places and times. The bloomery was charged with charcoal and iron ore and then lit. Air was blown in through a tuyere to heat the bloomery to a temperature somewhat below the melting point of iron. In

7216-450: Is no longer produced on a commercial scale. Many products described as wrought iron, such as guard rails , garden furniture , and gates are made of mild steel. They are described as "wrought iron" only because they have been made to resemble objects which in the past were wrought (worked) by hand by a blacksmith (although many decorative iron objects, including fences and gates, were often cast rather than wrought). The word "wrought"

7380-565: Is now Belgium where it was improved. From there, it spread via the Pays de Bray on the boundary of Normandy and then to the Weald in England. With it, the finery forge spread. Those remelted the pig iron and (in effect) burnt out the carbon, producing a bloom, which was then forged into bar iron. If rod iron was required, a slitting mill was used. The finery process existed in two slightly different forms. In Great Britain, France, and parts of Sweden, only

7544-593: Is now the Riverina Highway, then turned north through Thurgoona via today’s Table Top Rd then Old Sydney Road, then crossed Bowna Creek to follow Plunkett Rd to Bowna. The deviation, opened in 1933, follows the first 9 km of the Wagga Road, then crossed the railway and ran to Bells Road before turning east then southeast to Bowna. Most of this route, although now duplicated, remains as part of the Hume Highway, other than

7708-548: Is of state heritage significance as it is one of only two early Australian bridges built with Australian iron (Denison Bridge at Bathurst is the other). It is also one of only three pin jointed metal trusses still extant in NSW (the others being the Whipple truss road bridge at Nowra and the Gundagai rail bridge, no longer in use). It is a British pin-jointed truss of a type that did not appear in

7872-427: Is of state heritage significance for its landmark qualities as an integral part of the overall historic vista which includes the iron bridge, the long timber viaduct and adjacent rail bridge. These are a widely recognisable part of the built environment in Gundagai and have a place in the experience and memories of travellers between Sydney and Melbourne from its opening in 1867 until its closure in 1977. The place has

8036-682: Is owned by Transport for NSW and the timber viaduct is owned by Crown Lands . The bridge was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 5 July 2019 and on the (now defunct) Register of the National Estate on 21 March 1978. In 1977, the 1,143-metre-long (3,750 ft) Sheahan Bridge replaced the Prince Alfred Bridge as the Hume Highway crossing of the Murrumbidgee River. The Sheahan Bridge

8200-549: Is separated from its twin city in Victoria, Wodonga , by the Murray River. Together, the two cities form an urban area with a population of 97,793 in 2021. It is 554 kilometres (344 mi) from the state capital Sydney and 326 kilometres (203 mi) from the Victorian capital Melbourne. Said to be named after a village in England, United Kingdom , Albury developed as a major transport link between New South Wales and Victoria and

8364-511: Is the largest suburb of Albury, and the only suburb which has its own postcode (2641, as opposed to 2640 for the balance of Albury). The suburb was originally named Black Range in the 1850s and 1860s, before being renamed Lavington in 1910. Originally within the boundaries of Hume Shire, it was absorbed into the City of Albury Local Government Area in the 1950s. Housing and commercial development has continued from that point until this day. Prior to 2007,

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8528-586: Is the second-oldest metal truss bridge in Australia and the oldest in NSW. It formed part of the longest bridge in New South Wales (922 metres (3,025 ft)) until the completion of the Sydney Harbour Bridge in 1932. The Prince Alfred Bridge is important in the history of the development of inland road transport and provides evidence of significant early engineering activity in the Riverina. It also demonstrates

8692-598: The Albury Library Museum , Murray Art Museum Albury (MAMA), Albury Entertainment Centre and Convention Centre, and the Murray Conservatorium. In the same block are the Post Office, Police Station and Courthouse, and St Matthew's Anglican Church (which was rebuilt after being destroyed by fire in 1990). The Albury City Council offices are located on Kiewa Street. Forrest Hill lies directly north west and covers

8856-550: The Bessemer process and the Siemens–Martin process , the use of wrought iron declined. Many items, before they came to be made of mild steel , were produced from wrought iron, including rivets , nails , wire , chains , rails , railway couplings , water and steam pipes , nuts , bolts , horseshoes , handrails , wagon tires, straps for timber roof trusses , and ornamental ironwork , among many other things. Wrought iron

9020-588: The Denison Bridge at Bathurst , has the distinction of being one of only two early Australian bridges that contained Australian iron. While the iron for the piers of Denison Bridge at Bathurst was cast at P. N. Russell & Co 's Foundry in Sydney from pig iron obtained from the Fitzroy Iron Works, the cast iron piers at Gundagai were cast by the Fitzroy Iron Works from largely local iron. The piers are therefore

9184-790: The Electoral district of Albury is currently represented by Justin Clancy , also of the Liberal Party. The member for Albury between 1932 and 1946, Alexander Mair , was the Premier of New South Wales from 1939 to 1941. Local government is the responsibility of the Albury City Council , whose area of responsibility has gradually been enlarged to cover new housing estates on the city's fringes. Amanda Duncan-Strelec became Albury's first female Mayor in 1995, serving for one year. The current mayor of Albury

9348-434: The Fitzroy Iron Works at Mittagong , using iron smelted from locally-mined ore in their blast furnace. There were 56 cylindrical castings weighing between 2.04 and 2.27 tonnes; 2.01 and 2.23 long tons (2.25 and 2.5 short tons) each - with one cylinder being three metres (nine feet) long, two metres (six feet) in diameter, with a wall-thickness of 3 centimetres (1.125 in). The columns were sunk through alluvial deposits to

9512-525: The Hume Highway – passed north-east through the suburb, with Urana Road passing north-west through the suburb from the "Five Ways" road junction. In 2007, an internal bypass of the Hume Freeway was opened, with the former name of the Hume Highway section officially reverting to the commonly used "Wagga Road". The suburb of Lavington also includes the localities of Springdale Heights, Hamilton Valley and Norris Park. Albury's lawn cemetery and crematorium lies at

9676-472: The Industrial Revolution began during the latter half of the 18th century. The most successful of those was puddling, using a puddling furnace (a variety of the reverberatory furnace ), which was invented by Henry Cort in 1784. It was later improved by others including Joseph Hall , who was the first to add iron oxide to the charge. In that type of furnace, the metal does not come into contact with

9840-525: The MacRobertson Trophy Air Race (also known as the London to Melbourne Air Race), made an emergency night landing at the town's racecourse after becoming lost during severe thunderstorms. After signalling by Morse code A-L-B-U-R-Y to the lost aircrew by using the entire town's public lighting system, the "Uiver" was guided in to land safely. The makeshift runway at the racecourse was illuminated by

10004-630: The Nattai district, which became the Fitzroy Iron Works . The Fitzroy Iron Works were the first ironworks in Australia, but their story is one of persistent failure over half a century despite numerous and repeated ambitious, entrepreneurial and optimistic attempts. For finished products (cast or rolled), land or water transport to an English port plus sea freight to Sydney were less than the cost of cartage between Mittagong and Sydney. Pig iron, also, could not compete against British iron, mostly brought out as ballast in wool ships. The Prince Alfred Bridge, with

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10168-595: The Walloon process was used. That employed two different hearths, a finery hearth for finishing the iron and a chafery hearth for reheating it in the course of drawing the bloom out into a bar. The finery always burnt charcoal, but the chafery could be fired with mineral coal , since its impurities would not harm the iron when it was in the solid state. On the other hand, the German process, used in Germany, Russia, and most of Sweden used

10332-517: The bloomery ever being used in China. The fining process involved liquifying cast iron in a fining hearth and removing carbon from the molten cast iron through oxidation . Wagner writes that in addition to the Han dynasty hearths believed to be fining hearths, there is also pictorial evidence of the fining hearth from a Shandong tomb mural dated 1st to 2nd century AD, as well as a hint of written evidence in

10496-413: The finery forge at least by the 2nd century BC, the earliest specimens of cast and pig iron fined into wrought iron and steel found at the early Han dynasty site at Tieshengguo. Pigott speculates that the finery forge existed in the previous Warring States period (403–221 BC), due to the fact that there are wrought iron items from China dating to that period and there is no documented evidence of

10660-404: The 1960s restricts views to the trusses from some viewing angles. Timber deck changes throughout the life of the bridge (both fabric and form), addition of footway in the early 1960s, repainting throughout the life of the bridge. As at 13 April 2016, the Prince Alfred Bridge is of State heritage significance for its historical values as the first iron truss bridge to be built in New South Wales and

10824-680: The 1960s, the price of steel production was dropping due to recycling, and even using the Aston process, wrought iron production was labor-intensive. It has been estimated that the production of wrought iron is approximately twice as expensive as that of low-carbon steel. In the United States, the last plant closed in 1969. The last in the world was the Atlas Forge of Thomas Walmsley and Sons in Bolton , Great Britain, which closed in 1973. Its 1860s-era equipment

10988-730: The 2009 Yellow Creek deviation. The other minor highways which connect to Albury are the Riverina Highway , which runs west through Berrigan to Deniliquin and east to Lake Hume ; and the Olympic Highway which diverges north from the Hume 16 kilometres (9.9 mi) north of Albury, and runs across the South Western Slopes via Wagga Wagga , Cootamundra and Young to terminate at the Mid-Western Highway at Cowra . In 1888,

11152-473: The 21st century, major Wiradjuri groups live in Condobolin , Peak Hill , Narrandera and Griffith . There are significant populations at Wagga Wagga and Leeton and smaller groups at West Wyalong, Parkes, Dubbo, Forbes, Cootamundra, Cowra and Young. The explorers Hume and Hovell arrived at what their maps called 'Crossing Point', but is now known as the Murray River at Albury, on 16 November 1824. They named

11316-418: The 4th century AD Daoist text Taiping Jing . Wrought iron has been used for many centuries, and is the "iron" that is referred to throughout Western history. The other form of iron, cast iron , was in use in China since ancient times but was not introduced into Western Europe until the 15th century; even then, due to its brittleness, it could be used for only a limited number of purposes. Throughout much of

11480-616: The Aboriginal name for the area, but when his plan was eventually approved and published in the Government Gazette on 13 April 1839 the name had been changed to Albury. Albury is said to be named after a village in Kent , England which it apparently resembled, though that referenced publication seems incorrect since there is no Albury in Kent. More plausible is Albury in adjacent Surrey, straddling

11644-443: The Colonial Government for a bridge. Successive governments deferred on the grounds of low traffic flows and the high cost of any bridge project to cross the half-mile flood plain, but political and commercial factors forced the Government's hand. The merchants at Wagga Wagga favoured trade with Victoria since that colony's railway had reached Echuca in 1864, and they accused the distant Sydney-based Government of neglect. They formed

11808-510: The February low of 42.1 mm (1.66 in). Albury has quite a high evaporation rate in summer, giving the environment a relatively arid appearance. The city enjoys a high amount of sunshine, getting around 108 days of clear skies annually (with the majority in summer and early autumn). The sunniest month is January, with 14.6 clear days (and 7.7 cloudy days), and the cloudiest month is July, with 17.5 cloudy days (and 3.9 clear days). The airport

11972-559: The Franklin Institute to conduct a study. As part of the study, Walter R. Johnson and Benjamin Reeves conducted strength tests on boiler iron using a tester they had built in 1832 based on a design by Lagerhjelm in Sweden. Because of misunderstandings about tensile strength and ductility, their work did little to reduce failures. The importance of ductility was recognized by some very early in

12136-536: The Middle Ages, iron was produced by the direct reduction of ore in manually operated bloomeries , although water power had begun to be employed by 1104. The raw material produced by all indirect processes is pig iron. It has a high carbon content and as a consequence, it is brittle and cannot be used to make hardware. The osmond process was the first of the indirect processes, developed by 1203, but bloomery production continued in many places. The process depended on

12300-415: The Murrumbidgee River is a three span , wrought iron , pin jointed Warren truss on cast iron cylindrical piers . A Warren truss, as originally patented, consists of a configuration of repetitive equilateral triangles that support a road on either the top or bottom chord. The trusses of the Prince Alfred Bridge have additional verticals at each cross girder location, designed to provide lateral support to

12464-521: The Prince Alfred Bridge is enhanced through its important association with inland road transport and communications between Sydney and Melbourne. The bridge is also associated with a visit to Australia by the Duke of Edinburgh in 1867 afterwhom the bridge was named. In addition the bridge is associated with two eminent engineers, William Christopher Bennett the designer and Francis Bell the Contractor. Technically

12628-772: The Railway Department and the Central Railway Terminus . He was involved in constructing a number of iron truss bridges including the earliest substantial metal truss bridge in Australia, the Hawthorne Bridge over the Yarra in Melbourne. Bell was City Engineer for the City of Sydney from 1871 to 1879, and was a member of the Sewerage and Health Board. The place is important in demonstrating aesthetic characteristics and/or

12792-505: The Smollett Street wrought iron arch bridge was constructed over Bungambrawatha Creek. Smollet Street was extended westward through the botanical gardens to give direct access from Albury railway station to Howlong Road by a straight street. The bridge is near the botanic gardens and the local swimming pool. The bridge is a rare example of a metal arch bridge in New South Wales, and is the oldest of only two such bridges in New South Wales,

12956-533: The Sydney Harbour Bridge in 1932. As at 13 April 2016, the wrought iron is in excellent condition considering its age. There is minor section loss due to corrosion, but the loss is not substantially affecting the load carrying capacity of the bridge. A few of the iron castings supporting the cross girders are broken. The portions of the cast iron piers which are below water have been subject to graphitisation (a form of corrosion leading to loss of strength), as

13120-462: The Tillingbourne river and a significant 18th century site of mills and industry. By 1847 the Albury settlement included two public houses and a handful of huts, a police barracks and a blacksmiths. A log punt established in 1844 serviced the crossing of the Murray River . Albury Post Office opened on 1 April 1843, closed in 1845, then reopened in the township on 1 February 1847. In 1851, with

13284-478: The USA until the 1880s, and has the unique feature of the trusses being suspended from a continuous horizontal top chord member, supported on roller bearings on vertical pillars at each pier. The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a class of cultural or natural places/environments in New South Wales. Wrought iron Before the development of effective methods of steelmaking and

13448-496: The World War II, housing development in the area increased and Waugh Road was extended from David Street to the "Five Ways" intersection at Union Road, which ascribes the border between North Albury and Lavington . The locality of Glenroy is adjacent to North Albury, west of the Bungambrawartha Creek, and housing was developed here in the 1970s, including a significant Housing Commission public housing estate. Lavington

13612-440: The availability of large quantities of steel, wrought iron was the most common form of malleable iron. It was given the name wrought because it was hammered, rolled, or otherwise worked while hot enough to expel molten slag. The modern functional equivalent of wrought iron is mild steel , also called low-carbon steel. Neither wrought iron nor mild steel contain enough carbon to be hardened by heating and quenching. Wrought iron

13776-451: The bars were cut up, piled and tied together by wires, a process known as faggoting or piling. They were then reheated to a welding state, forge welded, and rolled again into bars. The process could be repeated several times to produce wrought iron of desired quality. Wrought iron that has been rolled multiple times is called merchant bar or merchant iron. The advantage of puddling was that it used coal, not charcoal as fuel. However, that

13940-414: The bridge is of state heritage significance as it demonstrates some unique engineering elements such as the support arrangements, consisting of vertical pillars at each pier, having the trusses suspended from the top chords, resting on a nest of roller bearings. The Prince Alfred Bridge is of state heritage significance for its landmark qualities as an integral part of the overall historic vista which includes

14104-466: The broad gauge and reloaded onto a standard gauge railway wagon on the opposite side of the platform. In his book Tramps Abroad , writer Mark Twain in 1895 wrote of the break of gauge at Albury and changing trains: ""Now comes a singular thing, the oddest thing, the strangest thing, the most unaccountable marvel that Australia can show. At the frontier between NSW and Victoria our multitude of passengers were routed out of their snug beds by lantern light in

14268-574: The broad gauge track to a second standard gauge track, between Seymour and Albury, was substantially completed in 2011. The railway station and its associated yards are listed on both the Australian National Heritage List and the New South Wales State Heritage Register . Albury Airport , owned and operated by the City of Albury , is the second busiest regional airport in New South Wales with around 280,000 passenger movements per year. The airport, 4 kilometres (2.5 mi) east of

14432-486: The cast iron cylinders for the piers were made with the earliest Australian iron, cast in The Fitzroy Ironworks which were the first ironworks in Australia. The pier cylinders are therefore an irreplaceable source of information on the quality and techniques of Australia's first ironworks. The place possesses uncommon, rare or endangered aspects of the cultural or natural history of New South Wales. The bridge

14596-471: The city centre, has scheduled daily flights to Sydney , Melbourne and Brisbane through commercial carriers. The road leading from Albury Airport to the city was renamed Borella Road in 1979, in honour of Victoria Cross recipient Albert Chalmers Borella , who was buried at Albury. Local public transport is provided exclusively by private bus operators, Martin's Albury and Dysons who run day time bus services. The overwhelming majority of local transport

14760-413: The course of the smelt, slag would melt and run out, and carbon monoxide from the charcoal would reduce the ore to iron, which formed a spongy mass (called a "bloom") containing iron and also molten silicate minerals (slag) from the ore. The iron remained in the solid state. If the bloomery were allowed to become hot enough to melt the iron, carbon would dissolve into it and form pig or cast iron, but that

14924-437: The cylinders to Gundagai because scarcity of feed and water between Yass and Gundagai deterred carriers from undertaking the work. When a 2-metre (6 ft) section of cylinder was placed in its required position, the material inside and under the cutting edge was excavated by hand, causing the cylinder to sink under its own weight. As the cylinder descended, additional lengths were added with internal bolted connections until

15088-598: The department saying he was "one of the ablest officers in the government service" Francis Bell was another engineer who was born in Ireland By 1853 Bell had migrated to Australia, and was first involved in a number of significant engineering projects in Victoria. His expertise was such that he was often requested to give evidence to the Victorian Royal Commissions on the River and Harbour Trust, to Select Committees on

15252-580: The development of the blast furnace, of which medieval examples have been discovered at Lapphyttan , Sweden and in Germany . The bloomery and osmond processes were gradually replaced from the 15th century by finery processes, of which there were two versions, the German and Walloon. They were in turn replaced from the late 18th century by puddling , with certain variants such as the Swedish Lancashire process . Those, too, are now obsolete, and wrought iron

15416-422: The development of tube boilers, evidenced by Thurston's comment: If made of such good iron as the makers claimed to have put into them "which worked like lead," they would, as also claimed, when ruptured, open by tearing, and discharge their contents without producing the usual disastrous consequences of a boiler explosion. Albury Albury ( / ˈ ɔː l b ər i / ; Wiradjuri : Bungambrawatha )

15580-399: The difference in gauges and speed up traffic, a bogie exchange device lifted freight wagons and carriages allowing workers to refit rolling stock with different gauged wheel-sets. The break of railway gauge at Albury was a major impediment to Australia's war effort and infrastructure during both World Wars, as every soldier, every item of equipment, and all supplies had to be off-loaded from

15744-434: The early importance of the Sydney to Melbourne route. The place has a strong or special association with a person, or group of persons, of importance of cultural or natural history of New South Wales's history. The state heritage significance of the bridge is enhanced through its associated with two eminent engineers William Christopher Bennet and Francis Bell. William Christopher Bennett, Irish born engineer, designed

15908-437: The extended upper chord and a pillar which rises from the pier top. A similar detail is provided at the central pier, where each upper chord is continued from one span to the next across a nest of rollers. The Warren truss, as originally patented, consisted of a configuration of repetitive equilateral triangles but the Prince Alfred Bridge has additional verticals at each cross girder location, designed to provide lateral support to

16072-451: The first train ran direct from Sydney to Melbourne. The two states could not initially agree which should be the transfer point so they had an expensive and attractive iron lattice bridge sent from Scotland which accommodated both gauges. There was a school operating at Albury in 1848, catering for 13 private students. The following year the first National School opened on the corner of Dean and Kiewa Streets, with 73 students enrolled. In 1862

16236-464: The flat land directly north of it is covered by parkland, housing and light industry, and a retail park including Harvey Norman and Spotlight franchises, as well as the city airport . The Mungabareena Reserve lies on the Murray south of the airport, and is considered an Aboriginal cultural site of some significance. Mungabareena means "place of plenty talk" in the Wiradjuri language. South Albury

16400-432: The fuel, and so is not contaminated by its impurities. The heat of the combustion products passes over the surface of the puddle and the roof of the furnace reverberates (reflects) the heat onto the metal puddle on the fire bridge of the furnace. Unless the raw material used is white cast iron, the pig iron or other raw product of the puddling first had to be refined into refined iron , or finers metal. That would be done in

16564-589: The full width of the floodplain. It consisted of 105 timber spans varying from 5 to 9 metres (15 to 30 ft) long, but as far back as 1932 the details of this configuration of the bridge had been lost, and no further details are known, other than the fact that it was 12.2 metres (40 ft) longer than the bridge which replaced it. In 1896 the third configuration of the bridge was completed. The northern spans and southern approach spans were all replaced. The northern spans were replaced by seventy-five spans of 11 metres (35 ft) and one of 9 metres (28 ft), one of

16728-401: The gases were liberated. The molten steel then froze to yield a spongy mass having a temperature of about 1370 °C. The spongy mass would then be finished by being shingled and rolled as described under puddling (above). Three to four tons could be converted per batch with the method. Steel began to replace iron for railroad rails as soon as the Bessemer process for its manufacture

16892-399: The headlights of cars belonging to local residents who had responded to a special news bulletin on ABC radio station 2CO. After refuelling the next day, many local volunteers helped pull the stranded aircraft out of the mud and the aircraft was able to take off and continue to Melbourne where it won first prize in the race's handicap category and was second overall. Albury and Wodonga played

17056-418: The history of metal bridge design and construction in New South Wales. Prince Alfred Bridge was listed on the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 5 July 2019 having satisfied the following criteria. The place is important in demonstrating the course, or pattern, of cultural or natural history in New South Wales. The Prince Alfred Bridge - iron road bridge is of state heritage significance as it

17220-404: The iron and caused some loss of strength." However, after considering a number of options for a new bridge it was admitted that, 'It was plain that the existing iron trusses, though light and of unusual design, viewed from the aspect of modern structural practice, were in good order and were capable of rendering efficient service for the life of at least one more timber approach.' Since that time,

17384-415: The iron bridge, the long timber viaduct and adjacent rail bridge. These are a widely recognisable part of the built environment in Gundagai and have a place in the experience and memories of travellers between Sydney and Melbourne from its opening in 1867 until its closure in 1977. The Prince Alfred Bridge is of state heritage significance for its special value to the engineering profession, particularly for

17548-625: The iron bridge. After arriving in Australia Bennett quickly rose to the position of Commissioner and Chief Engineer in the Roads Department (appointed in 1860), a position he retained until 1889. Bennett and his Department constructed 16,000km of road and 64 km of bridges. In addition to his prodigious work on roads and bridges in New South Wales, Bennett also made a significant contribution to navigation, water supply and sewerage works. In 1872 Sir Henry Parkes commended Bennett and his work with

17712-430: The iron. The included slag in wrought iron also imparts corrosion resistance. Antique music wire , manufactured at a time when mass-produced carbon-steels were available, was found to have low carbon and high phosphorus; iron with high phosphorus content, normally causing brittleness when worked cold, was easily drawn into music wires. Although at the time phosphorus was not an easily identified component of iron, it

17876-529: The last significant snowfall in July 1966. The highest temperature recorded at Albury was 46.1 °C on 4 January 2020, and the lowest temperature was −4.0 °C recorded on 8 August 1994 (both at the Airport AWS station). Albury's mean annual rainfall is 699.1 millimetres (27.52 in). Rainfall peaks distinctly in the winter months with a high mean of 75.9 mm (2.99 in) in July and August, comparing with

18040-459: The least workmanship on the ground, and because of the rapidity with which it could be erected, incurring least risk from the violent floods of the Murrumbidgee during construction. However, Bennett, along with many other engineers of his day, considered the lattice truss superior. The main objection to the Warren truss was that all the strains are taken by a single pin, whereas in the lattice system

18204-431: The level of the floodplain. It was the first iron truss bridge to be built in New South Wales, The pin-jointed Warren truss section is the second-oldest metal truss bridge in Australia. It was designed by William Bennett , Engineer and Commissioner for Roads and constructed by Francis Bell . The trusses were assembled from iron work imported from England. The cylinderical casings for the supporting columns were cast at

18368-554: The longest in Australia. The broad gauge section of track between Seymour and Albury has now been converted to standard gauge; there is no longer a break-of-gauge at Albury station. The station is served by a three daily V/Line train services from Melbourne (terminating at Albury) and the NSW TrainLink Melbourne-Sydney XPT service, which runs twice daily in each direction. In 1873, the 5-foot-3-inch (1.60 m) broad gauge railway line from Melbourne reached

18532-401: The longest timber beam bridges in Australia. The alignment of this new approach was slightly to the west of the previous (second) northern approach. The two southern spans of 9 metres (30 ft) dating from 1865 were replaced by one span of 11 metres (35 ft) and one of 9 metres (28 ft) on the same alignment as the previous southern approach spans. In addition a side ramp was built on

18696-419: The main Sydney to Melbourne route, the Prince Alfred Bridge carried huge volumes of traffic in its lifetime until 1977 when the Hume Highway was realigned to bypass Gundagai with the construction of Sheahan Bridge. The Prince Alfred Bridge continued to carry local traffic over the Murrumbidgee River between North and South Gundagai; until it was declared unsafe for vehicular and pedestrian traffic. Two spans of

18860-504: The mid 19th century, in Austria as the stuckofen to 1775, and near Garstang in England until about 1770; it was still in use with hot blast in New York in the 1880s. In Japan the last of the old tatara bloomeries used in production of traditional tamahagane steel, mainly used in swordmaking, was extinguished only in 1925, though in the late 20th century the production resumed on

19024-411: The morning in the biting cold to change cars. Think of the paralysis of intellect that gave that idea birth, imagine the boulder it emerged from, on some petrified legislator's shoulders." During World War II military armouries and warehouses were established in the vicinity of Albury at Bonegilla, Wirlinga and Bandiana. Similar stores were also established at Tocumwal and Oaklands . The conversion of

19188-500: The necessary depth or foundation had been reached. The hollow cylinder was then filled with rubble consisting of red sandy soil with the odd stone. An immense amount of difficulty was at first experienced in reaching the necessary depth; borings to a great depth had to be made, through huge masses of timber brought down by floods in bygone ages, but the indomitable energy of the superintending engineer, Frederick Augustus Franklin, overcame every obstacle. Franklin, who worked for Francis Bell,

19352-442: The original iron kerb. By 1932, it was thought that, "the iron spans, then being sixty-five years old, could hardly be relied upon for a further period of service much in excess of thirty years (the average expected life of a timber girder span as used on viaducts), which would bring them to an age of practically 100 years. Apart from not being heavy enough to carry the present-day standard bridge loading, old age had probably affected

19516-458: The other being the Sydney Harbour Bridge . Albury railway station is on the main Sydney-Melbourne railway line. Originally, New South Wales and Victoria had different track gauges , which meant that all travellers in either direction had to change trains at Albury. To accommodate this, a very long railway platform was needed; the 450-metre (1,480 ft) long covered platform is one of

19680-402: The outside of the truss in the early 1960s. As opened in 1867 the bridge had a total length of 314 metres (1,030 ft), consisting of three wrought iron truss spans each of 31 metres (103 ft) across the river, two timber southern approach spans each of 9 metres (30 ft), and twenty-three timber northern approach spans each of 9 metres (30 ft), rising on a gradient of 1 in 30 from

19844-409: The preferred candidate for the national capital , though the proposal met staunch opposition from residents. At a public meeting, just one member of parliament voted in favour of Albury – Isaac Isaacs , member for Indi . The lack of support for other places ultimately led to the selection of Canberra as the preferred site. In 1934, a Douglas DC-2 airliner of KLM (the "Uiver"), a competitor in

20008-666: The product is no longer wrought iron, since the slag stringers characteristic of wrought iron disappear on melting, so the product resembles impure, cast, Bessemer steel. There is no engineering advantage to melting and casting wrought iron, as compared to using cast iron or steel, both of which are cheaper. Due to the variations in iron ore origin and iron manufacture, wrought iron can be inferior or superior in corrosion resistance, compared to other iron alloys. There are many mechanisms behind its corrosion resistance. Chilton and Evans found that nickel enrichment bands reduce corrosion. They also found that in puddled, forged, and piled iron,

20172-498: The quality and techniques used by Australia's first ironworks and demonstrate the technical achievements of the colony of NSW in producing its own iron. The construction of the bridge was a significant development in the history and development of NSW as it provided easy access to Sydney therefore channeling the resources and wealth of the Riverina district north to Sydney to the benefit of New South Wales rather than south to Melbourne and Victoria The state level heritage significance of

20336-470: The realignment of the Highway in 1977, the historic features of the bridge with its viaduct have been successfully promoted such that it, along with the rail bridge and its viaduct, is a prominent tourist attraction. The place has potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of the cultural or natural history of New South Wales. It meets this criterion of State significance because

20500-637: The river the Hume River , after Hume's father, and the next day inscribed a tree by the river bank before continuing their journey south to Westernport in Victoria. In 1830, explorer Captain Charles Sturt discovered the Hume River downstream at its junction with the Murrumbidgee River . Not realising it was the same river, he named it the Murray River. Both names persisted for some time, Hume falling into disuse eventually in favour of Murray. The Aboriginal name for

20664-432: The river was Millewa . A crossing place for the Murray became popular close to where Hovell inscribed the tree. In summer it was usually possible to cross the river by foot. Among the first squatters to follow in the steps of the explorers and settle in the district were William Wyse and Charles Ebden . The first European buildings erected at the crossing place were a provisions store and some small huts. A survey for

20828-587: The saddle between Monument Hill and Nail Can Hill. West over the ridge lies West Albury . West Albury is primarily a residential area, but it is home to the First World War Memorial (locally known as the Monument), Riverwood Retirement Village, Albury Wodonga Private Hospital (which lies on the corner of Pemberton Street and the Riverina Highway), and the Albury sewage treatment plant. All of West Albury

20992-531: The same manner as mild steel, but the presence of oxide or inclusions will give defective results. The material has a rough surface, so it can hold platings and coatings better than smooth steel. For instance, a galvanic zinc finish applied to wrought iron is approximately 25–40% thicker than the same finish on steel. In Table 1, the chemical composition of wrought iron is compared to that of pig iron and carbon steel . Although it appears that wrought iron and plain carbon steel have similar chemical compositions, that

21156-441: The second-oldest metal truss bridge remaining in Australia. In addition it is of significance for its rarity as it is one of only three pin jointed metal trusses remaining in New South Wales. Its historical values include the fact that the cast iron piers were cast in at the Fitzroy Iron Works, the first ironworks in Australia, chiefly from local ores. The Bridge and the piers therefore provides an irreplaceable source of information on

21320-424: The separation of Victoria from New South Wales, and the border falling on the Murray River, Albury found itself a frontier town. With an increase in commerce with Melbourne, the first bridge was built in 1860 to the design of surveyor William Snell Chauncy . Albury at this time became a customs post between the two colonies as New South Wales held a protectionist stance after gaining its constitution in 1856. Albury

21484-507: The spring flood peak, has led to the drying out and loss of many billabongs and has harmed the populations of native fish of the Murray River such as the iconic Murray Cod . Several threatened species can be found in Albury, including the Sloane's froglet , Regent Honeyeater , and Squirrel Glider (Petaurus norfolcensis). Situated on the Hume Highway , Albury is a major transit point for interstate commerce. In March 2007, Albury city centre

21648-422: The state grid. When full, the lake covers 80 square kilometres (31 sq mi). The lake was created for irrigation purposes and has caused significant changes to the flow patterns and ecology of the Murray River. Before the construction of the Hume Weir, flows in normal (non-drought) years were low in summer and autumn (though still significant overall), rising in winter due to seasonal rainfall and reaching

21812-517: The strain is divided amongst a number of rivets instead. Francis Bell, the contractor, also preferred the wrought iron lattice, which, he said, could be imported from England and launched into position very economically. For these (among other) reasons, very few Warren truss bridges were constructed during this period. The iron for the superstructure was furnished by Messrs Lloyds, Fosters, and Company's Wednesbury, Old Park Ironworks in Staffordshire, and

21976-401: The stress distribution, allowing further economy in the use of iron by varying the cross-sectional area of the top and bottom chords without adversely affecting strength. Kennard patented his invention in 1853, and it was the Warren and Kennard patent that was used by Bennett in his design of the Prince Alfred Bridge. According to Bennett, the Warren girder had been adopted, because it required

22140-438: The timber deck has changed arrangement a number of times, and the ironwork has been painted with a number of different systems (originally white, now grey). In the early 1960s a footway was added to one side of the bridge, which remains today. Good design and quality construction have given a durable bridge able to carry much heavier loads that originally intended or foreseen, and for much longer than had been imagined. Located on

22304-410: The top chord. It and the railway truss downstream (constructed more than 30 years later) are two of only three pin-jointed metal trusses remaining in NSW - the other is the Whipple truss road bridge at Nowra . The deck on the truss spans originally consisted of two 5-centimetre (2 in) thick layers of diagonal decking, the upper layer being approximately at right angles to the lower layer. The deck

22468-406: The top chord. The trusses are suspended from a continuous horizontal top chord, supported on a nest of five rollers located on vertical pillars attached to the top of each pier. The four cylindrical cast iron piers are filled with soil and stones. The trusses support a timber deck, which carries two lanes of traffic. Longitudinal timber sheeting was added to the deck in 1959, and a footway was added on

22632-465: The top of the puddle and was fished out of the melt as puddle balls, using puddle bars. There was still some slag left in the puddle balls, so while they were still hot they would be shingled to remove the remaining slag and cinder. That was achieved by forging the balls under a hammer, or by squeezing the bloom in a machine. The material obtained at the end of shingling is known as bloom. The blooms are not useful in that form, so they were rolled into

22796-469: The township of Belvoir/Wodonga. In 1881, the New South Wales 4-foot-8.5-inch (1.435 m) standard gauge railway line reached Albury, with a railway bridge joining the two colonies in 1883. Albury became the stop over, where passengers on the Melbourne-Sydney journey changed trains until 1962, when a standard gauge track was opened between the two capitals. After World War II, in an attempt to overcome

22960-409: The trusses, consisting of vertical pillars at each pier to support the trusses from the top chord, and the introduction of additional vertical elements designed to provide lateral support to the top chord. The Prince Alfred Bridge also demonstrates the technical achievements of the colony of New South Wales in discovering, mining, smelting and manufacturing the cast iron piers. The Prince Alfred Bridge

23124-628: The western end of Union Road. Thurgoona , to the east of Lavington, was established as a new residential suburb by the Albury Wodonga Development Corporation in the 1970s. In the 1990s a new campus of Charles Sturt University was established here, as was an office of the Murray Darling Freshwater Research Centre. A major golf club (Thurgoona Country Club Resort) is also situated in this suburb. Further outlying localities include Splitters Creek –

23288-407: The western side in 1896, leading down from the bridge six spans north of the main spans down to ground level of the floodplain beneath the approach spans, as it had already become necessary to reduce wear and tear on the timber approach spans. After the 1896 reconstruction the bridge had a total length of 922 metres (3,025 ft), and remained the longest bridge in New South Wales until the opening of

23452-457: The whole river flat to be bridged. The Prince Alfred Bridge over the Murrumbidgee River was opened on 24 October 1867 and named after Queen Victoria 's second son who was touring Australia that year. It was the first metal truss bridge to be built in NSW. A short sloping viaduct descended to join the road over the river flats until the long timber viaduct was complete in 1869. In England in 1848, James Warren and Willoughby Monzani had obtained

23616-449: The wooden viaduct over O I Bell Drive and a span over Landon Street were demolished in May 2021 due to safety concerns, as the sections had significantly deteriorated. Due to further significant deterioration, demolition of the timber viaduct commenced in early November 2021 due to the significant safety risk that the deteriorated timber viaduct poses to the public. The Prince Alfred Bridge over

23780-560: The working-over of the metal spread out copper, nickel, and tin impurities that produce electrochemical conditions that slow down corrosion. The slag inclusions have been shown to disperse corrosion to an even film, enabling the iron to resist pitting. Another study has shown that slag inclusions are pathways to corrosion. Other studies show that sulfur in the wrought iron decreases corrosion resistance, while phosphorus increases corrosion resistance. Chloride ions also decrease wrought iron's corrosion resistance. Wrought iron may be welded in

23944-523: The wrought iron truss spans and a small number of timber spans at each end, The bridge was named for the then reigning Queen Victoria 's son, Prince Alfred, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha , and was built to carry the Great Southern Road (now the Hume Highway) across the Murrumbidgee. It has existed in three forms, with only the main spans across the river itself being common to all three. The site

24108-464: Was a bridge planned, but an expensive iron structure was approved as a clear indication to the south-western districts of the Government's legitimate interests in those regions. In late 1861, the Government placed A£ 24,000 in the estimates for a modest scheme with a short viaduct, which would have left the floodplain impassable during a flood. However, in 1864 the estimate was increased to A£37,000 for

24272-479: Was adopted (1865 on). Iron remained dominant for structural applications until the 1880s, because of problems with brittle steel, caused by introduced nitrogen, high carbon, excess phosphorus, or excessive temperature during or too-rapid rolling. By 1890 steel had largely replaced iron for structural applications. Sheet iron (Armco 99.97% pure iron) had good properties for use in appliances, being well-suited for enamelling and welding, and being rust-resistant. In

24436-549: Was at this time starting to grow substantially with German speaking immigrants using the area to grow grapes for wine. By the 1870s a butter factory was established, flour mill , wineries and locally brewed cider and soft drinks were available. The railway line from Sydney arrived at Albury in 1881 (see Transport-Rail below). A temporary wooden railway bridge joined the line to the Victorian network in 1883. New South Wales and Victoria had different track gauges until 1962, when

24600-540: Was bypassed by a new section of the Hume Freeway . The city centre bypass includes the new Spirit of Progress Bridge over the Murray River, and cost $ 518 million, the most expensive road project built in rural Australia at that time. Creation of the lake resulting from construction of the Hume Dam from 1915 onward necessitated a 30 km deviation of the Hume Highway. The Highway originally ran east out of Albury, along what

24764-484: Was considered sufficient for nails . Phosphorus is not necessarily detrimental to iron. Ancient Near Eastern smiths did not add lime to their furnaces. The absence of calcium oxide in the slag, and the deliberate use of wood with high phosphorus content during the smelting, induces a higher phosphorus content (typically <0.3%) than in modern iron (<0.02–0.03%). Analysis of the Iron Pillar of Delhi gives 0.11% in

24928-493: Was duplicated in 2010. Since the opening of the Sheahan Bridge, the Prince Alfred Bridge has served local traffic only. The timber spans on the Prince Alfred Bridge have deteriorated to such an extent that the 1896 side ramp has had to be reinstated, so that most of the northern approach is disused, and has deteriorated to the point where it is closed to vehicular traffic and pedestrians. The portion that remains in use consists of

25092-404: Was finished with a light curved iron kerb, similar to the kerb which still exists on Denison Bridge (see photo). This arrangement of deck for the truss spans was retained when Percy Allan designed the new northern viaduct which was constructed in 1898, but by 1932, there was just a single layer of transverse decking on the truss spans similar to the viaduct approaches, and a timber kerb rather than

25256-400: Was historically known as the "crossing place" and is where Charles Sturt first crossed the Murrumbidgee. It became known in the mid-19th century as the safest location to cross the river. Periodic flooding of the Murrumbidgee had already had detrimental effects on the pioneering settlement of Gundagai, situated on the floodplain. In 1852 almost 100 people were drowned in a severe flood. By 1853

25420-515: Was hypothesized that the type of iron had been rejected for conversion to steel but excelled when tested for drawing ability. During the Han dynasty (202 BC – 220 AD), new iron smelting processes led to the manufacture of new wrought iron implements for use in agriculture, such as the multi-tube seed drill and iron plough . In addition to accidental lumps of low-carbon wrought iron produced by excessive injected air in ancient Chinese cupola furnaces . The ancient Chinese created wrought iron by using

25584-412: Was inspected by eminent engineer Mr. Fowler. Testing of the wrought iron was conducted, and the strength was found to be much in excess of the specification. The testing in England of the first span for the bridge was also reported as very satisfactory; the deflection with a load did not exceed an inch. In 1848, three Sydney businessmen had joined a local man in an attempt to exploit the iron resources of

25748-471: Was moved to the Blists Hill site of Ironbridge Gorge Museum for preservation. Some wrought iron is still being produced for heritage restoration purposes, but only by recycling scrap. The slag inclusions, or stringers , in wrought iron give it properties not found in other forms of ferrous metal. There are approximately 250,000 inclusions per square inch. A fresh fracture shows a clear bluish color with

25912-445: Was not the intention. However, the design of a bloomery made it difficult to reach the melting point of iron and also prevented the concentration of carbon monoxide from becoming high. After smelting was complete, the bloom was removed, and the process could then be started again. It was thus a batch process, rather than a continuous one such as a blast furnace. The bloom had to be forged mechanically to consolidate it and shape it into

26076-528: Was of little advantage in Sweden, which lacked coal. Gustaf Ekman observed charcoal fineries at Ulverston , which were quite different from any in Sweden. After his return to Sweden in the 1830s, he experimented and developed a process similar to puddling but used firewood and charcoal, which was widely adopted in the Bergslagen in the following decades. In 1925, James Aston of the United States developed

26240-584: Was once wetland and bush. The only remnant of this is Horseshoe Lagoon to the south-west of the suburb, which has been declared a Wildlife Refuge by NSW Parks & Wildlife and incorporated into the Wonga Wetlands. To the north-west of West Albury is Pemberton Park . East Albury lies east of the railway line/freeway from the CBD and houses now cover the eastern hill alongside the Albury Base Hospital, while

26404-491: Was proclaimed a city in 1946. The Wiradjuri (Wiradjuri northern dialect pronunciation [wiraːjd̪uːraj]) or Wirraayjuurray people (Wiradjuri southern dialect pronunciation [wiraːjɟuːraj]) people were the first known humans to occupy the area, and are a group of Indigenous Australian Aboriginal people that were united by a common language, strong ties of kinship and survived as skilled hunter–fisher–gatherers in family groups or clans scattered throughout central New South Wales. In

26568-478: Was selected as the primary focus of the Whitlam federal government's scheme to redirect the uncontrolled growth of Australia's large coastal cities (Sydney and Melbourne in particular) by encouraging decentralisation. Grand plans were made to turn Albury-Wodonga into a major inland city and large areas of the surrounding farmland were compulsorily purchased by the government. Some industries were enticed to move there, and

26732-473: Was the chemical composition and others that it was whether the iron heated sufficiently to melt and "fuse". Fusion eventually became generally accepted as relatively more important than composition below a given low carbon concentration. Another difference is that steel can be hardened by heat treating . Historically, wrought iron was known as "commercially pure iron"; however, it no longer qualifies because current standards for commercially pure iron require

26896-454: Was well regarded and gained the cordial good wishes and esteem of the people of Gundagai by his work. The design for the three iron truss spans of the Prince Alfred Bridge are based on the British pin-jointed Warren and Kennard trusses, and have the unique feature of the trusses being suspended from a continuous horizontal top chord, supported on roller bearings on vertical posts at each pier. The end roller detail has five rollers placed between

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