This recent addition to Port Adelaide’s waterscape is actually a pair of bridges, one rail and one road.

The two are unusual not only for being single leaf drawbridges but also for the history of how they came to have their current names, the Mary MacKillop and Tom ‘Diver’ Derrick Bridges respectively.

Both were originally called the ‘Prexy Bridges’, short for Port River Expressway. Next the road bridge was changed to the ‘Power Bridge’ to honour the local football club while giving the new name of the rail bridge over to a public competition. The public never got their say and the rail bridge was named by the government after Saint Mary MacKillop instead.

Meanwhile the public were never really happy about the road bridge being called after a football club and with the agreement of the Port Adelaide Football Club, the road bridge was finally named after local WW2 hero Tom Derrick.

Call the two what you will, they’re still bridges and do what bridges do best!

Photo: Robert Rath, ‘Day 852, A Bridge By Any Other Name’ 15s f/5.6 ISO100 17mm