First & Second Bridges

Outside Mount Victoria lie to bridges built by the NCR in 1844, these are known as **First & Second Bridges**.

## Proposal to Mount Victoria

In 1841, The NCR was planning an extension of the mainline southeast towards the village of Mount Victoria, which would result in over 500 workers constructing the line. The problem was that two gullies isolated Mount Victoria on the proposed route.

## Crossing the gullies

The solution to the railway's problem was to construct a bridge over the gullies, based on a wooden trestle. The plan for the single bridge was dropped due to the cost and shortage of materials to construct the single wooden trestle bridge over the gullies. The idea turned to two separate trestles to cross the gullies, known as "First Gulley" and "Second Gulley" by railway workers constructing the bridges, also earning the bridges the names 'First Bridge' and 'Second Bridge'. In 1847, the two bridges and the line to Mount Victoria was opened to all traffic including short goods services. After 1855, Tri-ang Railways took over the route and started re-gauging the NCR routes form Scotch gauge (4'6") to Standard gauge (4' 8 1/2"), but this line was left out of the proposed plan.

## TR operations and replacement of First Bridge

In early TR days, the two trestles were seeing heavy use each day since the take-over of the old railway and crews from TR-built Scotch gauge locomotives reported strange sounds from First Bridge while crossing it. It turned out to be rotten wooden causing the sounds and ended up in the line being closed for six months lead to First bridge being demolished and rebuilt from a wooden trestle to a stone viaduct, which could take more heavier loads. Second bridge was left untouched due to some strange "force" around the wooden bridge.

## Haunting of Second Bridge

### Backstory

According to NCR-veteran Mauretania, an eight-year-old girl named Carrie Janie dead when she jumped clear out of her way and fell to the bottom of Second Gulley, breaking her back on one of the wooden supports. Her body was never recovered from Second Gulley.

### Incidents surrounding haunting

Not much of the haunting incidents have been recorded but as shown in the episode Ghost on the Second Bridge, many incidents are mentioned and happened in the episode.

* 1859-1900: Crews go missing after their locomotive breaks down on Second Bridge.
* 10/03/1984: John Oxley breaks a crank axle on Second Bridge, and the axle isn't worn out!
* 11/03/1984: Strand's boiler pressure drops and his boiler goes cold, even when the fire was burning hot!
* 25/03/1984: The Garrett breaks down on Second Bridge and his crew go missing. That night, the Garrett and Henry Lawson encounter the ghost of Carrie Janie.
* 26/03/1984: Mauretania's breaks are released after her crew heads home after a coach ran a hot box.

## Status today

Today, both these bridges were bypassed following the events of March 1984. The tracks were removed and the structures now stand alone with no train to cross them. It was decided by the local council of Mount Victoria to allow the heritage listed bridges to be reclaimed by nature. In 2017, Second Bridge finally collapsed and conceived the oldest bridge on Nerland to the history books.

## Basis/inspiration

The idea of these bridges came from Second Bridge outside Mount Victoria in the Blue Mountains of NSW, Australia. In real life, there is no First Bridge. The appearance of First Bridge was based on Ribblehead Viaduct on the Settle & Carlisle Line in the UK. Second Bridge appears to be based on the standard trestle bridge found in the USA. The strange hauntings of Second Bridge are based on accounts from its Australian counterpart.