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Official Opening of the second Fitzherbert Bridge

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Description: "Pressing an electric button on the official platform a short distance from the city end of the new Fitzherbert bridge, His Excellency the Governor-General, Lord Galway, to-day, broke a red, white and blue ribbon stretched taut across the end of the structure and declared the bridge officially open. Simultaneously flag draping dropped away from the two pylons at the entrance to reveal suitable commemorative inscriptions of the slabs of polished black Belgian marble embedded in concrete." See also, Manawatū Evening Standard, 20 & 22 July 1935.
The second Fitzherbert Bridge was built by Fletcher Construction Co. Ltd between 1933 and 1935. It replaced the original wooden structure completed in 1877. The second bridge was 256 metres in length with a 6.7 metre wide carriageway and 1.5 metre wide footpath. The structure's most distinctive features were the four pairs of bowstring arches, each 34.1 metres wide and 9.2 metres high. It remained in use until 1987 when it proved too small for the volume of traffic and was replaced by the current bridge.