Fisher Swing Bridge, Port Adelaide.

The Port Adelaide Dock Company excavated an extension to the South Australian Company's Basin to provide essential additional wharfage. To cross this and provide access to the northern side of the Port Adelaide Dock (also called the New Dock), the Dock Company built a bridge. After examining a number of designs the American Pratt truss type swing bridge was selected. Manufactured by the Edge Moor Iron Company of Delaware the bridge was shipped in April 1880 and after arrival took only four weeks to assemble and mount on the foundations which had been prepared previously.

Named the Fisher Bridge at its official opening in September, the bridge was 128 feet long and 32 feet wide and capable of carrying a load of 80 tons. A railway line for freight crossed the bridge to the northern wharves. The bridge could be operated by two men using a key and levers, taking only two minutes and providing a 60 feet opening.

The bridge was removed in June 1935, and Ocean Steamers Road was built across the site.

Ritter, Ron Spanning time and tide: the bridges of the Port Adelaide River [Para Vista, S.A.]: R.C. Ritter, 1996

Couper-Smartt, John Port Adelaide: tales from a "commodious harbour" Port Adelaide: Friends of the South Australian Maritime Museum, 2003

Parsons, Ronald, Southern passages: a maritime history of South Australia Netley, S. Aust.: Wakefield Press, 1986

State Library of South Australia: Mortlock Wing exhibitions. Wooden Walls and Iron Sides August 2004-