Getting across Brisbane’s bridges | The West Australian

In Venice, it is the little bridges connecting the islands that make the city walkable. In Paris, it is the “ponts” across the Seine that inspire romance, art and literature. In Istanbul, it is the East-West bridge (15 July Martyrs Bridge) across the Bosporus Strait that allows the imagination to embrace the immensity of scale needed to connect continents. It is sometimes difficult in Australia to see our cities and structures in that auspicious world-class line-up, but contemporary Brisbane needs to be viewed in this light (otherwise a savvy traveller might question the frenetic bridge building).

The Brisbane River, flowing from Mt Stanley (north-west of Brisbane) for 309km through its rich catchment to spill into Moreton Bay, supports a major expressway in the city and is crisscrossed by an ever-increasing number of wildly different bridges (at present 15).