WE DRIVE ACROSS THE TASMAN BRIDGE

Spanning the River Derwent is the Tasman Bridge, which first opened in 1965 as the longest prestressed concrete bridge in Australia. It was struck by the SS Lake Illawarra in 1975, causing two piers and three sections of the decking to collapse. This led to the deaths of 12 people and resulted in the SS Lake Illawarra being sunk to the bottom of the river bed where it remains to this day. 

During the two and a half years it took to rebuild the bridge, Hobart was divided in two. Commuters were forced to make a 50-kilometre round trip to reach the CBD via the closest bridge to the north. In October 1977, the bridge reopened and it now carries on average more than 73,000 vehicles a day, making it the highest-volume road section in Tasmania.