I remember I was a young teenager at work at the Victorian Railways in Dudley St. West Melbourne when I heard this terrific crash and at first I thought a ship or something crashed into the docks or something just down off Footscray road and I duly bolted down there but could see nothing and when I got back at work iI remember listening to a news flash on the radio that said the West Gate bridge just collapsed and that was what I had heard, years later in 1985 I was a manager for a heavy equipment Hire company in Richmond and one of my customers came in and we somehow got talking about the West Gate bridge and to my utter amazement he told me he was on the top of the bridge in a hut when he heard the unmistakeable noises of metal shearing and bolts exploding and then the bridge span started to fall with him and many others with it! Yes he rode the the span down and landed in a mud flat at the bottom critically injured but alive! He then proceeded to show me and some of my office staff the scars and places where pins were in and on his body by taking his shirt off and dropping his dacks! He had the most extra ordinary outlook on life after that he said because he Was one of the few SURVIVORS! That rode the damn thing down! boy I tell you he was (a terrific Italian fella) I think a labourer on the bridges construction and he said to me life was terrific because he was alive where so many lost their lives!

My uncle was one of the 35 who died when the bridge went down. It changed a family for decades. A mum lost a son, through grief & husband & wife lost each other. My father (who lost his brother) was never ok & it shattered my childhood. Celebrate this beautiful bridge. The cost was high.

That baby just crawling around the front seat of the car... different times!

Love the old Holden and Ford classics in this video, the pace of the traffic was a lot more sedate than it is now, how times have changed......

I remember on the 15th of November 1978 our teacher rolling in the TV so we can celebrate this important mile stone in Melbourne's history.I still the remember the theme song,which brought a smile to me upon hearing it here again.My parents took a ride the same week up & over & back again.I still get a buzz driving over the West Gate Bridge to this day.Thanks for memory...

The Westgate Bridge opened in the midst of a strike by petrol tanker drivers Petrol rationing didn't exist so if you had petrol in your car you had to be very careful to make it last through to the end of the strike. On the day the bridge opened - a Tuesday - the government said travel was free for the week A group of us who had petrol thinking there wouldn't be any traffic on the bridge decided we'd do the crossing, imagine our surprise and shock when we got to the bridge to discover every man and his dog was out in their cars trundling across the bridge. The view of the bay and the surrounding suburbs from atop the bridge was breathtaking. 43 years later I still have vivid memories of that day.

I remember the plastic tub thing you threw the money in. I was a kid and that was my memory of going over it occasionally. Thinking back now, it must of been a difficult job to man the toll gates in winter and summer. I hope they had air-con.

Must have been a bitter-sweet moment for the workers who lost their mates, and the families of the deceased.

My dad went under that bridge everyday to work with his bike.even on the day it fell.

I was born in lat 1981, and I can still remember to toll booths. I'm surprised that the tolls were removed. I guess it is now made up for the tolls from CityLink.

This is a great upload. 35 workers gave their lives for this magnificent bridge. Many take this bridge for granted and hang shit on it. I don't......

Enjoy the beer as you go - what a classic that you could have a beer when driving lol

On my walks around the bay,it is an impressive sight in the distance

great upload rare find ! you channel has some great doco, great work

Awesome footage. I remember going over it with my brother when I was younger it was a little scary but an amazing bridge.

I recall the day when the span collapsed. A tragic day. Went over it in both directions that day it was opened.

brand spanking Holden VB SL/E at 5:30

"No hold up in the tollbooths, traffic flowing smoothly" lol . We have no toll booths but traffic still comes to a stand still at the bottom ....:/

I remember when it re/opened again after more structural work was completed around 1984/5 and it cost $1.00 coin to get past the toll gates. lol :)

Wow 7:19 you wouldn't see that anymore.

interesting doco

Awesome! Lots of neat ephemera here...there's even two brand new MFP Ford Falcon Interceptors at 6.51 - heheh!

It's a bridge time between two cultures. The old English formal presentations with the posh accent, and the casual Aussie vibe starting to come through via commercial radio.

Oh, if it was only that empty now...

Also known fact the lighting was supplied by a perth company called riverton engineering as well and the largest flag was also supplied by a company called Acme Mining supplies also from perth, not sure whop supplied the largest australian flag after that, but it was massive. lol :)

This is gold!

10:04 Try and get away with that nowadays 😆

Look at that traffic flow.. These days it gets backed up for kilometers....

Lol 8:35 mins. Sorry to hold up those 4 cars control. I have just apologized to the drivers for delaying there day for 3 seconds

lovely!

I remember the bridge opening

Those were the days. 8:17 Enjoy the beer as you go over...lol

good show.

Toll booths in Melbourne wow! Brisbane had them up until 2009

Damn I miss the light poles as flying sources...

when i watch this, i think oh my god, simpler times.. man fucken social media completly ruined everything, wanna throw my phone out the worst invention in history followed by the pc. can't fucken believe i lost as sa

whatever happened to all that perfection and friendly service??? Now that bridge is absolutely hopeless.traffic day and night and always roadworks.............. I miss those days...................

See in the old days kids the West Gate bridge had a dual role, it connected the western Suburbs to Metropolitan Melbourne and also served as a fantastic way to end one's life.

It's known as a car park these days

Something we probably won’t ever see again - where a toll USED to be but is now a free public road…🙄😑

pride of our melbourn

Crikey 41 years old... how quaint we were in 1978... I was 18 ! I am not sure why we needed the M113 APCs... were they concerned that the Missourians had taken over Williamstown and they had to flush them off the bridge just in case.... 3XY!! Crikey.... The guy at 08:24 is not wearing a selt belt, and perhaps not much else... Book em Danno...

Someone busted rollin' a booger at 7:07

7:18. No seat belt on the kid but the parent has one one. WTAF?!?

Wow the place is empty!

Holden broke down ahhahahahhahahha

Between 1978 and 2011, over 900 people commited suicide by jumping off this bridge. It was rated the #3 suicide hotspot worldwide for a long time. And a great place to play songs like "Ruru's Suicide Song On A Livestream" at its base in the memorial park. I will soon be doing this. Take that, Gacha Life people! I can out do you!

Also the CCC control and command center is still there, which look's after all the CCTV cameras and tolls as well. :)

LOL Now look at it, you have to leave for work around 5 or 6am for a 8.30 / 9am start and thats if you live is say geelong or even sunshine or footscray even, just using dynon road which everyone started to use, when the tolls fees went up ?

07:18 baby on the lap in front seat.

Is it just me, or do the Aussie accents back than, sound a lot more British, than the Aussie accents you hear today? Is that how people spoke back than?

6:07 Johnny Farnham

Amoured personnel carriers doing a demolition derby on the bridge.

Again another blind vision of Vic Gov and not looking to the future and the growth that was happening back even back then. It still wasn't big enough. It's a traffic nightmare.

I hate the bloody thing ! Anxiety attacks every time I go over it !

I hate that bridge 😖 I will never go on it when my mum says Come on just go on it! I’m like NO! Can we go the other way?

The old toll booths r still thr I think 🤷‍♀️

wow, not an Idian or Sudanese looking person in sight.

It's only a matter of time before the West Gate bridge collapses due to the huge unplanned weight of the steel suicide fencing along the whole length.

All smoking stinking cigarettes!

Typically dreary 70's nonsense, a narrator more suited to the fifties, forgettable tripe.