The Bethanga Bridge is a steel truss road bridge that carries the Riverina Highway across Lake Hume, an artificial lake on the Murray River in Australia. The dual heritage-listed bridge crosses the border between the Australian states of New South Wales and Victoria, linking the Victorian towns of Bellbridge and Bethanga with the regional New South Wales city of Albury. History Context The first crossing of the Murray River by white men occurred in November 1824 when Hamilton Hume and William Hovell led an expedition from Yass in search of an overland route to Westernport Bay. Their crossing point was some distance up river from Albury and an obelisk near the river commemorates this. Hume and Hovell came upon the river on 16 November 1824, naming it the Hume River, and inscribing a tree near the riverbank the next day before moving on to the south. In 1829, the explorer Captain Charles Sturt discovered the Hume River downstream at its junction with the Murrumbidgee River. Not realising it was indeed the Hume, he named it the Murray River. Both names persisted for some time, Hume falling into disuse eventually in favour of Murray. The explorers route was shortly followed by white squatters and their livestock, mainly sheep and cattle. Subsequently, many families took up parcels of grazing land on the rich river flatlands, among the first being William Wyse and Charles Ebden. The drovers track that developed along the line of the advancing squatters, and subsequently by their excess stock returning for sale at Melbourne and Sydney markets, led naturally to the same point Hume and Hovell first sighted the river. Although an easier crossing point could be found 10 miles upstream (where the Hume Dam now stands) the original site by Hume and Hovel's inscribed tree became the popular crossing place for people and stock on their way to new settlements in the south. Crossing the river during the drier summer months could normally be achieved on foot. When the river was high after heavy rains or snow melting in the mountains crossing became difficult until a log punt was built in 1844. Stock, however, had to swim. The first bridge over the Murray was built in 1860 near the present crossing at Albury. People up and down stream had to find their own fords, or trek back to Albury. The arrival of the first railroad from Melbourne in