Sydney's Suspension Bridge / Northbridge Tramline 

I thoroughly enjoyed this fascinating video. I lived in Northbridge from 1938 until the end of 1953, in Calbina Rd, the second street on the left off Strathallan Av, just up from the bridge. I’m told I was at the opening of the current bridge but, as I was only 2 at the time, I don’t remember being there. I did most of my schooling in North Sydney, so for many years I crossed the bridge in a bus twice every school day. Much has changed in the nearly 70 years since I left Sydney, but your video brought back many fond memories of my young days in Northbridge, and for that, I thank you.

Good to see the bridge still exists.

Hi Marty, thanks for sharing a most interesting video. Unfortunately, I was born a bit too late to see trams on the Suspension Bridge, though my grandfather told me a bit about it years ago. I was fortunate enough to ride some of the North Shore tram lines during the 1950's prior to the system closure in 1958. Crossing the Sydney Harbour Bridge by tram was always a favourite outing for me. Anyway, take care. Rob in Melbourne Australia.

Wonderful video; well sourced and researched. Thank you. I remember it well. My parents live at Cammeray and often spoke of the bridge when it was truly a suspension bridge.

Hi Marty, thank for publishing these lovely videos. My tip, I got once from a Library the Tram Video about Sydney Trams. It could have been VHS :)

Just letting you know that you can see the old Wynyard Tram stations and tunnels every year during Vivid as part of their paid exhibits. I went again this year - it was called Dark Spectrum and was amazing!

Thanks, mate, for another great video! It seems to be the history of most of Australia, big plans for buildings, roads, railways, bridges, etc, only to be demolished, scrapped, rebuilt, diverted and often, forgotten!🥂🍺

Thank you Marty very clear, informative and entertaining. Never had the pleasure of using this line as growing up south of the Harbour and using the Abbotsford and Dulwich Hill Lines.

Very informative and interesting. Thank you

Excellent! When was the decision made to phase them out? Mid-fifties? And was the NSW government influenced by generous donations from oil companies? How could the largest tram network in the world disappear like that, with some old trams ritualistically burnt as though people hated them.

I didn't know living in the Northern suburbs was so complicated by public transport - it seem it still is except it is due to constant track work which seems to be almost every second weekend!

Thanks again

In one of your last vids. There was a tram deposit at Tempe. It is still there but busses us it. Don't know what is in the building to the back. I use to drive the bus

I remember being taken to the Train and Tram museum at Loftus/Sutherland in the late 1960s early 70s/. I don't know if it still exists or not. It was a long time ago. That visit was the start of my fascination with transport.

On the map the word "SHEWN" appears...I may be wrong, but I believe this was the result of influence by George Bernard SHAW on the way the English language should be written. Please can someone confirm or discount this?... Thank you.

I withdraw my comment about the caption. I did not realize it was voice recognition.

I have been to the Northbridge terminus by tram from Cammeray shops before the Suspension Bridge closed. The caption should be revised because there are number of spelling errors and incorrect location names. One minor point: On the way to Northbridge the tram line crossed Miller St from Vale St on to a reserved section before rejoining Miller St and entering the bridge via the left hand curve.

I really enjoy these videos, but a pet peeve of mine is when labels of suburbs and towns omit the state or territory, but 'Australia' is still appended. 'Northbridge, Australia', for example, is ambiguous, since there's also a Northbridge in WA. (It's worse when people write 'Richmond, Australia', as I've seen in other media-I know of five of those.) States and territories are important; if you're going to write the country, I think you should also write 'NSW'. You might even be able to ommit the country, since I don't think there's a NSW anywhere else.

While people look back with rose coloured glasses on trams and no doubt their premature demise was brought about by lobbying of oil companies and bus/car suppliers, they would have been completely dysfunctional in modern Sydney (and by the 70's). Melbourne has a viable network due to being a planned city with wider roads. Living in Balmain East near what was a line, I cannot imagine how utterly hopeless life would be now with cars and trams fighting on tiny roads (it already takes 15 minutes to travel 3km now from Balmain East to Victoria road another traffic disaster). Even Melbourne like Sydney is no longer suited to a tram environment with a large geographical footprint and the famed quarter acre block. High speed rail, and laid underground despite high cost is the only solution along with busses acting as shuttles for a city 100km long and 80km wide. Trams are only viable over short distances in highly built up suburbs (as they were in the early 1900's in a smaller city) and today only where they can run in a distinct tram only corridor. Big cities need lots of travel options that suit topography and geographical spread. The steep hills of inner Sydney no doubt made them incredibly slow at the best of times. We do most of our travel by Ferry/train, both of which have delivered reliable and quick service for many decades. Not that our rail hub and spoke was ever a great design either...... Metro's crossing over like the TUBE in London is our long term outcome to cut as best travel congestion for 5m people.

I wish we could go back to the 50s they were the good old days thank you.🚉🚊🍺👍👍👍