Lansdowne Bridge across Prospect Creek, Lansvale

Lansdowne Bridge is considered to be one of the finest examples of Colonial Architecture in Australia. It was built by convicts during 1834 to 1836. The sandstone arch has the largest span of any surviving masonry bridge in Australia. It was opened on 26 January 1836.

The bridge’s designer was Scottish immigrant David Lennox. See here: David Lennox.

It’s a pity it’s so hard to see! There is a park “Lansdowne Bridge Reserve” off the main road, where in one or two spots you can walk a little way down the weed-infested creek bank and look towards the bridge. You can walk across the bridge (warning: traffic passes very close, and it's a major thoroughfare)

The best view of the bridge is as you drive across the duplicate bridge heading west…so it flashes past in a second.

Here’s a watercolour painting by artist Conrad Marten from 1836.

The Meccano Set, Lansvale

The intersection of Liverpool Road (the Hume Highway), Woodville Road and Henry Lawson Drive at Lansdowne has, for decades, been universally known as 'The Meccano Set', and I think that is its official name now (at least that's how it appears on street directories). It's a Sydney icon.

If you don’t know what a Meccano set is, click here.

You can find out more here and here.