The Arapuni Suspension Bridge is located just downstream from the

Arapuni Power Station Arapuni Power Station is a hydroelectric power station on the Waikato River, in the North Island of New Zealand. It is owned and operated by Mercury Energy, and is the seventh and penultimate hydroelectric power station on the Waikato River. It ...

on the

Waikato River The Waikato River is the longest river in New Zealand, running for through the North Island. It rises on the eastern slopes of Mount Ruapehu, joining the Tongariro River system and flowing through Lake Taupō, New Zealand's largest lake. It th ...

in the

South Waikato District South Waikato District is a Territorial authorities of New Zealand, local government district in the Waikato, Waikato Region of the North Island of New Zealand. It is located between the cities of Hamilton, New Zealand, Hamilton to the north, Rot ...

of New Zealand. The suspension bridge in the bush-lined gorge was built in the mid-1920s to allow workers from the village of

Arapuni Arapuni is a rural town centre on the Waikato river in the South Waikato District of New Zealand. The town sits next to the Arapuni Dam, a hydroelectric dam at Lake Arapuni commissioned in 1929. The Arapuni Power Station consists of eight tur ...

to access the power station construction site.

History

The bridge spans the Arapuni gorge about downstream from the Arapuni Dam. As it was a relatively simple ancillary structure associated with what at the time was New Zealand's largest civil engineering project, the suspension bridge itself received little mention in progress reports and media accounts.http://www.historic.org.nz/TheRegister/RegisterSearch/RegisterResults.aspx?RID=4168 Historic Places Trust website on Arapuni Suspension Bridge. Retrieved 16 January 2010 Construction started in May 1925 and finished sometime in the three months after April 1926. The bridge does not seem to have had a formal opening function. The bridge connected "top camp" (which eventually became the Arapuni township) with the western side of the gorge. "Top camp" accommodated the workmen employed on construction of the

spillway A spillway is a structure used to provide the controlled release of water downstream from a dam or levee, typically into the riverbed of the dammed river itself. In the United Kingdom, they may be known as overflow channels. Spillways ensure tha ...

, powerhouse and

penstock A penstock is a sluice or gate or intake structure that controls water flow, or an enclosed pipe that delivers water to hydro turbines and sewerage systems. The term is of Scots origin, and was inherited from the earlier technology of mill pond ...

. The bridge was registered a Category II historic place by the

Historic Places Trust Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga (initially the National Historic Places Trust and then, from 1963 to 2014, the New Zealand Historic Places Trust; in ) is a Crown entity that advocates for the protection of ancestral sites and heritage buil ...

on 21 April 1994.

Engineering

The bridge was designed by David Rowell & Co. from

Westminster Westminster is the main settlement of the City of Westminster in Central London, Central London, England. It extends from the River Thames to Oxford Street and has many famous landmarks, including the Palace of Westminster, Buckingham Palace, ...

, London. The structure is likely to have been shipped prefabricated from England, and was erected by the British contractors for the Arapuni dam and power station project,

Armstrong Whitworth Sir W G Armstrong Whitworth & Co Ltd was a major British manufacturing company of the early years of the 20th century. With headquarters in Elswick, Tyne and Wear, Elswick, Newcastle upon Tyne, Armstrong Whitworth built armaments, ships, locomot ...

. It is one of the longest suspension footbridges in the country.Bridging the Gap: Early Bridges in New Zealand 1830 to 1939, pages 4, 208 The bridge has a span of and is higher when measured from true left (i.e. the left side when looking downriver) to true right. It has a high steel lattice tower on the true left. On the true right, the bridge footing is cut into the side of the river bank and the foundation for the suspension cables is built on top of the cliff.

Today

The bridge is a popular tourist destination. The site can be accessed via a walkway starting on Arapuni Road opposite Rabone Street. Bridge users are rewarded with views of the scenic gorge. Geological features can be seen, and the cliffs on the true right of the landing are of volcanic origin and formed by

ignimbrite Ignimbrite is a type of volcanic rock, consisting of hardened tuff. Ignimbrites form from the deposits of pyroclastic flows, which are a hot suspension of particles and gases flowing rapidly from a volcano, driven by being denser than the surrou ...

blocks, which are vertically fissured by cooling stresses. The bridge is sometimes called the Arapuni

Swing Bridge A swing bridge (or swing span bridge) is a movable bridge that can be rotated horizontally around a vertical axis. It has as its primary structural support a vertical locating pin and support ring, usually at or near to its center of gravit ...

, for example on signs along the walkway to the bridge. In New Zealand, the term 'swing bridge' is commonly used to refer to

suspension bridges A suspension bridge is a type of bridge in which the deck (bridge), deck is hung below suspension wire rope, cables on vertical suspenders. The first modern examples of this type of bridge were built in the early 1800s. Simple suspension bridg ...

that act as footbridges because they 'swing' as pedestrians walk across. The Waikato River Trails, which is under construction as part of the

New Zealand Cycle Trail The New Zealand Cycle Trail project (Māori language, Māori: ''Nga Haerenga'', "The Journeys") is a New Zealand government initiative, co-funded together with Territorial authorities of New Zealand, local councils and charitable trusts, which ...

, will pass the bridge on the true right of the Waikato River. Waikato River Trails website about the Arapuni village to Arapuni dam trail. Retrieved 16 January 2010 PC277731_Arapuni_Swing_Bridge

References

External links

* New Zealand Historic Places Trust {{commons category, Arapuni Suspension Bridge Suspension bridges in New Zealand Heritage New Zealand Category 2 historic places in Waikato Bridges completed in 1926 Bridges over the Waikato River Bridges in Waikato Tourist attractions in Waikato 1926 establishments in New Zealand 1920s architecture in New Zealand