PLEASE DO NOT CLIMB ON OR ATTEMPT TO CROSS THE BRIDGE, IT IS UNSAFE!!!
Start from Goose Green Settlement, and ensure someone knows you are going and what time you should get back.
4X4: On a nice day, with dry conditions the track to Bodie Creek Bridge is a pleasant off road drive almost fit for a beginner. In the wet/snow it is very demanding, requires multiple vehicles and considerable offroading experience.
Walking: It is further than you think. Ensure you are prepared with water, food and suitable clothing. It is not unusual for fog and mist to descend suddenly which can be disorientating. Don't forget a Hat and Sunscreen (even on a cloudy winters day).
The Bridge surrounds are a great spot for a picnic, enjoy the day. But please pick up your litter afterwards.
There was no industrial base on the island. No ironworks or engineering factories, so the bridge and the sheds had to be imported. They ordered the bridge from David Rowell & Co. in London. It cost £2,281.00 and was shipped to the Falkland Islands on the SS Ballena. I wonder how much a replacement kit would cost these days?
The foreman, Mr. E. S. Crawford, was a mason so he directed the construction of the footings for the two towers and the bases for the ramp on the Southern bank.
There were only two machines available for the team to use. One was a cement mixer, and the other was a stone breaker. As you can imagine, the stone breaker was incredibly noisy. People could hear it all the way back in Goose Green when it was running.
The team of men who worked on the bridge were the local sheep farmers. They were the only workforce available, so everyone pitched in. A real team effort.
There were no cranes, no earthmovers, no trucks. Everything had to be done by hand. Apart from one engineer and a mason, the rest of the workforce were not skilled civil engineers – they were local sheep farmers. You can see the convoys of men with wheelbarrows as they moved the rubble or brought down the concrete.
The Engineer Mr Charles Peters visited the site from time to time. There was a hut that was used as an office. The office contained a table and a couple of benches. The benches were boxes which could open out to make a bed. Sometimes Mr Peters stayed on site overnight and slept in this makeshift bed.
The foundations for the bases at both ends of the bridge had to be blasted out of solid rock using explosives. You can get an idea of how much material had to be removed from this photo. Every stone had to be taken away in a wheelbarrow.
There were no cranes, so how on earth could they lift the assembled 40 foot tall towers into place? Charles found an abandoned schooner-rigged yacht, probably the Gwendolin, and he adapted the twin masts to form an improvised lifting gear by means of ropes and pulleys. And it worked well, as you can see in the photos.
Construction was started in October 1924 and the bridge was completed in July 1925 – less than a year’s work.
Built as a sheep crossing, it has been crossed by the occasional vehicle, and quite often by horse-riders. It was taken out of use in 1999, and is now quite dilapidated and unsafe.
There are reports that the Bodie Creek Suspension Bridge is the most southerly suspension bridge in the world, and I am quite sure that this was true at the time it was constructed. Does anyone actually know of a steel suspension bridge further south than this?
A great website (hosted by Charles Peters grandson) can be found at (
visit link) with lots more information.
Logging your Visit. If you wish to log your visit you may send a photo of yourself with the bridge in the background.
PLEASE DO NOT CLIMB ON OR ATTEMPT TO CROSS THE BRIDGE, IT IS UNSAFE!!!