Qualla: Clifden Suspension Bridge

Clifden Suspension Bridge: Introduction

Mon, 09 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Harald Selke, CC BY-SA 2.0. Before the bridge, there was only the punt. Settlers heading south toward Clifden and the farmland beyond would load their stock and supplies onto a flat-bottomed boat and haul themselves across the Waiau River, one of Southland's most powerful waterways, a river swollen by rainfall from the mountains to the north. Getting caught in the current meant losing everything. In 1898, the Southland County Council decided the punt had to go, and county engineer Charles Henry Howarth drew up plans for something more permanent. Ten months later, on 5 April 1899, Sir Joseph Ward opened a suspension bridge that would carry traffic for nearly eighty years and still stands today.

Image: Harald Selke | CC BY-SA 2.0

Clifden Suspension Bridge: Howarth's Elegant Answer

Mon, 09 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Oren Rozen, CC BY-SA 3.0. The bridge Howarth designed was ambitious for its time and place. At 111.5 metres, it held the longest main span of any suspension bridge in New Zealand when it opened, a record it defended for years. Twenty-seven steel cables, anchored to concrete pillars clad to resemble dresse...

Image: Oren Rozen | CC BY-SA 3.0

Clifden Suspension Bridge: The River It Tamed

Mon, 09 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit bob walker from London, UK, CC BY-SA 2.0. The Waiau River that runs beneath the bridge drains Lake Te Anau and Lake Manapouri before reaching the sea at Te Waewae Bay. In the nineteenth century, its force was legendary among settlers, a huge volume of rain-fed water surging through the gorge at Clifden with enough power ...

Image: bob walker from London, UK | CC BY-SA 2.0

Clifden Suspension Bridge: Survival and Restoration

Mon, 09 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Ingolfson, Public domain. Heritage status did not guarantee an easy retirement. In 2009, an earthquake prompted a structural inspection that revealed safety concerns serious enough to close the bridge to pedestrians in April 2010. For three years the bridge stood empty, its totara deck off-limits, its cab...

Image: Ingolfson | Public domain