Lighthouse Bridge is the local name often used for the bridge crossing the Wainuiomata River near Baring Head, at the southern end of Wainuiomata Coast Road. It is also known in some sources as Baring Head Bridge or White/Whites Bridge. The bridge provides the main access from the Coast Road car park into East Harbour Regional Park and towards Baring Head Lighthouse.
More than just a river crossing, the bridge is the starting point for walks and rides into the coastal reserve. From the car park, visitors cross the bridge before either following the river track south or taking the Great Harbour Way, a four-wheel-drive road that climbs towards the lighthouse and surrounding headland. Public vehicle access generally ends at the car park, with bridge access limited to authorised vehicles.
The original bridge dated from 1932, a few years before Baring Head Lighthouse was completed in 1935. By 2018, Greater Wellington considered the 86-year-old structure to be near the end of its life, so it was replaced. The new bridge was built about 40 metres downstream, with improved flood clearance and safer access.
Lighthouse Bridge sits in a highly exposed coastal-river landscape, where floods, shifting gravel, strong winds, tides, and rough seas shape the mouth of the Wainuiomata River. Its importance is simple: without it, reliable access to the lighthouse side of the river would be difficult, especially when the river is high.
