Sandridge Bridge, Steel footbridge in Melbourne, Australia

Sandridge Bridge is a steel footbridge and cycling path that crosses the Yarra River diagonally, connecting downtown Melbourne to the Southbank precinct. Its 178-meter span allows direct passage from Flinders Street Station to the Arts Centre Melbourne.

The first bridge here opened in 1853 for Australia's first steam passenger railway, from Flinders Street to Sandridge (now Port Melbourne); a two-track timber trestle replaced it in 1859. The present steel girder bridge, designed by Victorian Railways and built by David Munro & Co from 1886, opened in 1888 as Australia's first four-track railway bridge, with a young John Monash on the workforce. Trains stopped in 1987 and it reopened in 2006 as a pedestrian and cycle path.

The Travellers, by artist Nadim Karam, is a group of ten abstract sculptures representing immigrants who arrived by train from Station Pier. Nine of them move along the bridge on bogies in a 15-minute sequence. Glass panels beside them give information on Australian indigenous peoples and immigrants' countries from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe.

The bridge is exposed to wind and weather, so dress accordingly and be prepared for changing conditions. The path accommodates both pedestrians and cyclists, though cyclists should walk their bikes when traffic is heavy.

The bridge crosses the Yarra at a 33-degree angle to the bank, one of the first railway structures in Melbourne to use steel girders instead of iron. On each bank the girders rest on bluestone and brick buttresses, and on the south side the structure continued as a brick viaduct. A young engineering student, John Monash, later commander of Australian troops in World War I, worked on its construction.