The history of the Main Road Bridge is interesting. The bridge connects The Village with Homedale, the oldest part of Wainuiomata.
Before the construction of Main Road Bridge, there was a ford that allowed access across the Wainuiomata River. A wooden bridge established circa 1874 came next. Then a Charles Seymer Whitcher (1885 – 1961) constructed a single-lane concrete bridge in 1916. In 1954, a man by the name of Williams expanded it into a two-lane structure. The bridge was referred to as the School Bridge because Wainuiomata School (now Wainuiomata Primary School) is situated at the southern end of the bridge.
Today, if you stroll beneath the bridge, you’ll easily notice the twin support columns dating back to the initial construction of a single-lane bridge, alongside the additional columns added during its upgrade to a double-lane structure.
Special thanks to Carl Smith for some information in this article.
![Wainuiomata River and School, Circa 1920 [Public Domain]](https://wainuiomata.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Wainuiomata-River-School.jpg "Wainuiomata-River-School")
