Gladesville Bridge is a heritage-listed concrete arch road bridge that carries Victoria Road over the Parramatta River, linking the Sydney suburbs of Huntleys Point and Drummoyne, in the local government areas of Canada Bay and Hunter's Hill, in New South Wales, Australia.

Due to community action the freeway project was abandoned by the Wran Government in 1977, leaving the Gladesville Bridge connecting the existing arterial roads.

[4] The Gladesville Bridge was designed by Anthony Gee, G. Maunsell & Partners and Eugène Freyssinet and built from 1959 to 1964 by Reed & Mallik (Engineers, England) and Stuart Bros (Builders, Sydney).

The future suburb of Gladesville remained isolated and rural until the 1850s when the earlier land grants were subdivided into large urban building blocks for the development of 'gentlemen's residences' for the wealthier colonists of NSW.

It featured a swing section on the southern end of the bridge that could be opened to permit sailing ships and steamers with high funnels to pass.

[14] 'Sixty miler' colliers from Newcastle would require the bridge to be opened to gain access to the Australian Gas Light Company (AGL) gasworks site at Mortlake, (now redeveloped as Breakfast Point).

By the 1950s, due to a rapid growth in private car ownership and road freight transport in Sydney during the interwar and post World War 2 period, the traffic crossing the old Gladesville Bridge was becoming increasingly congested.

[15] With consistent interruptions and delays from the tramline and from shipping transportation along the Parramatta River, it was soon realised that a new bridge was required to alleviate the problem.

[5][16] In the late 1950s, the Department of Main Roads (DMR) intended the replacement Gladesville Bridge to be a conventional steel truss of its own design.

However, winning the bridge contract was perhaps considered a long shot by the firm's partners and scarce resources were invested into the project from the outset.

The firm's first graduate recruit, 22-year-old Anthony Gee, was given the task of developing Maunsell's preliminary drawings into a viable design from which Reed & Mallik Ltd and Stuart Brothers, could formulate a price.

Due in part to the unprecedented nature of the design, the proposal was independently reviewed by internationally revered engineer, and pioneer of pre-stressed concrete methods, Eugene Freyssinet.

[5] DMR intended the new $6.3 million Gladesville Bridge to be part of the North Western Expressway, a larger program of road works that would act as a main artery to link Sydney with the northern suburbs, and through to Newcastle.

In many ways the construction echoed the Roman method of building arches using segmented units built over a temporary formwork.

In Gladesville's case, these were hollow precast concrete blocks which were hoisted up from barges on the river, then moved down a railway on the top of the formwork into position.

Once adjusted to the correct position, the gaskets were filled with liquid concrete, driving out the oil and setting to form a permanent solid arch.

[5] In the 1970s, the roadway of Gladesville Bridge was widened from six to seven-lanes (without structural modification) to accommodate increased traffic flow.

[5] The arch of the bridge is supported by concrete thrust blocks embedded into sandstone foundations on either side of Parramatta River.

Still in active operation and serving heavy inner-city road traffic on a daily basis, the Gladesville Bridge appears to be in good physical condition due to regular maintenance works.

[5] Gladesville Bridge is also associated with the celebrated French engineer, Eugene Freyssinet who reviewed the innovative and unprecedented design.

[5] The place is important in demonstrating aesthetic characteristics and/or a high degree of creative or technical achievement in New South Wales.

[5] Built in an era when aesthetic qualities were given high priority, particularly on high-profile infrastructure projects, Gladesville Bridge is an impressive and visually distinctive structure that serves as an inner-city landmark from the road and river.

[5] The replacement of the 1881 Gladesville Bridge, and the development of the unrealised North-Western Expressway, was a major Department of Main Roads project that was instigated by, and responded directly to, the demands of the Sydney community.

A critical link in the planned expressway to Newcastle, the new Gladesville Bridge was to alleviate traffic congestion and provide better access for the new residential suburbs and communities that were developing in the post-war period.

[5] Today, Gladesville Bridge is a landmark structure that continues to be a major arterial roadway servicing the Sydney community.