I don’t know how many times I’ve crossed the Storms River Bridge over the years. Not even counting the number of times I stopped there back when I was a tourist guide. The other day I stopped for fuel and decided to take a walk onto the bridge for a change again. It’s always an experience.
The Storms River Bridge, originally called Paul Sauer Bridge, is a deck arch bridge designed by Italian engineer Riccardo Morandi, and constructed by Concor under the supervision of constructing engineer, Bruno Desirello between 1953 and 1956. Prof Morandi designed the bridge from Rome using photographs and verbal information, without being on site. He only visited the site once the structure was finished!
The main arch was constructed on opposite sides in a vertical position and lowered to meet at the center, thus forming the completed arch structure.
The story goes that Desirello said that if it doesn’t meet he will jump from the bridge. There was a one meter gap… He got some advice from Morandi in Rome and successfully tried again that afternoon.
The bridge spans 100 meters and sits 120 meters above the river.
