This bridge was unofficially locally called "Tom's Bridge", because it was once used by Tom Lacy to give access to his block of land up the Waipahihi Stream (which is the next major stream further up the Whanganui from the one with "his" bridge). It spans the Makokoti Stream and is at the southern end of what was a bridle path linking Mangaohutu and Retaruke. When Tom took up his land soon after the Great War, there was only a ford to cross the stream. The bridge was built about 1926 or 1928.
Tom's Bridge was condemned sometime in the late 1930s, but it was still used in the 1940s and even into the early 1950s.
I took this photo in February 2001.
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