When the Auckland Harbour Bridge opened for the first time on May 30 1959, it was the realisation of plans almost a century old for a harbour crossing joining the North Shore to downtown Auckland. For the first time Shore people could drive across the Waitemata Harbour from Northcote Point to St Mary’s Bay rather than rely solely on the busy network of ferry services.
The bridge ended the Shore’s relative isolation and turned what had been a collection of semi-rural townships into modern suburbs, but with the gains there were also losses, and no part of the North Shore felt the impact of the bridge’s construction more than Northcote Point.
Hamblin, Dennis. Public walking over the Auckland Harbour Bridge the Sunday before opening day on 30 May 1959.
T1839. North Shore Libraries. Copyright Dennis Hamblin.