The causeway and adjacent McGees Bridge provide vital links between Hobart and two of Tasmania's principal tourist attractions - Port Arthur Historic Site on the Tasman Peninsula and the picturesque East Coast via the Tasman Highway.

In colonial times, the Richmond Bridge had been the primary crossing point of the Coal River on the road from Hobart to Sorell and beyond to the Tasman Peninsula and Port Arthur.

It had been decided much earlier that if a crossing at Pitt Water could be made, it would considerably reduce the time to reach Sorell.

[1] The engineering was difficult, but with a ready supply of convict labour on hand, the causeway was constructed with main force.

As a result, sluice conduits were cut into the lagoon, and a new pile system was created, to turn longer sections of the causeway into actual bridges.