Hampden Bridge is a heritage-listed single-span suspension bridge that carries Moss Vale Road (B73) across the Kangaroo River, in Kangaroo Valley, in the City of Shoalhaven local government area of New South Wales, Australia. The bridge was designed by Ernest de Burgh and built by Loveridge and Hudson. The property is owned by Transport for NSW. It was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 2 August 2019. Opened on 19 May 1898, the bridge is named in honour of Lord Hampden, the Governor of New South Wales from 1895 to 1899. History Hampden Bridge was designed by Ernest Macartney de Burgh, the colony's Assistant Engineer for Bridges, to replace the decaying timber truss bridge which originally spanned the Kangaroo River. The bridge was opened on 19 May 1898, just six days before floods washed the old bridge away. Construction was by Thomas Loveridge and Herbert Hudson and began in 1895. At the conclusion they formed a partnership, Loveridge and Hudson. A public holiday was declared in Kangaroo Valley for the bridge opening. The bridge was opened by the Minister for Public Works, J. H. Young. History of Kangaroo Valley Kangaroo Valley region is within the Dharawal/Thurawal clan country, a language group extending generally from the "Cowpastures" (Camden/Appin) east along Georges River then to the south of Jervis Bay and west to Braidwood. The Wodi Wodi and Wandrawandian, Dharawal sub groups from the Illawarra-Shoalhaven area accessed the valley year round. Local Dharawal names are still used such as "Noggarah", a big gully and "Parronrah", suitable camping areas on the river side flats. Kangaroos and other wildlife abounded and the valley was considered a refuge or game reserve, sometimes used as a meeting place for the various family groups to replenish on their journey to the "Cowpastures" around the Camden/Appin area, where larger gatherings took place with neighbouring clans such as the Gundungurra from the Blue Mountains, to trade and conduct ceremony. Quite often disputes were also addressed through a formal process. The arrival of the cedar getters and cattlemen in the 1800s changed the Aboriginal way of life and eventually only two family groups were recorded as living in the valley; at Trimbles Creek, north end of the valley and along the river on the southern side of the main village. By the early 1900s these remaining family groups were displaced from their lands and relocated with