Canning Bridge, Road bridge and heritage site at Como and Applecross, Western Australia.
Canning Bridge spans across the Canning River between Como and Applecross, with three navigation spans allowing water traffic to pass underneath. A parallel bridge built in 1958 carries traffic in the opposite direction, creating a two-way crossing system.
The first bridge here was designed in 1846 by Henry Trigg, then Superintendent of Public Works, but construction by Solomon Cook only began in 1849 after costly tenders were rejected; it cost £425. Flooding in 1862 damaged it, and convicts built a replacement in 1867. A third bridge followed in 1908, and the current jarrah, karri and wandoo timber bridge opened in December 1939.
The Canning Bridge Hotel, built in 1896 on the Applecross side, was upgraded in 1939 with an art-deco facade by architect William G. Bennett and renamed the Raffles Hotel after the Singapore hotel. Its neon beer billboards and live music drew popular local and interstate acts in the 1970s and 1980s; the 1939 building was kept when the site became a 17-storey apartment tower in 2002.
The 1939 bridge carries eastbound traffic on Canning Highway, while the 1958 parallel span carries westbound traffic. A fishing platform sits beneath the 1958 structure. The bridge is next to Canning Bridge railway station, and the Canning River is about 100 metres wide at this crossing.
During the Great Depression, between 1930 and 1933, the bushland on the eastern bank at Canning Bridge sheltered camps of homeless families. The 1939 bridge was kept standing after the new crossing opened because of World War II, in case enemy attack damaged it, and was not demolished until the late 1940s.
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