Coxs River railway bridges, Wallerawang
The Coxs River railway bridges are two heritage-listed railway bridges that carry the Main Western Line over the Coxs River at Wallerawang, City of Lithgow, New South Wales, Australia. The bridges were designed by engineering staff of the New South Wales Government Railways and built in 1870 by day labour. The property is owned by Transport Asset Holding Entity, an agency of the Government of New South Wales. It was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 2 April 1999. History By the early 1900s the original single track from Bowenfels to Wallerawang was inadequate for railway operations so plans were made to duplicate that section of line and at the same time ease the grades and flatten some curves. A major programme of similar works was begun in 1910 and continued until the mid 1920s but, because steel was an expensive import from Britain, the dominant material for bridging the many waterways was bricks, mostly from the 1912 State Brickworks at Homebush and mostly in the form of brick arch culverts and viaducts. The quantity of bricks used in the programme was enormous and the period could be aptly described as the "era of the brick