Earnscleugh Bridge crosses the Clutha River just to the south of Clyde in Central Otago, approximately a kilometre below the Clyde Dam. The stone piers date from the first bridge built in 1874. The piers have survived floods which twice washed away the cabling and decking of the original bridge. In 1935 the bridge was lengthened and the suspension structure replaced by a camelback truss. The eye-catching bridge sits amidst the rugged Central Otago hills providing a link between Clyde and nearby Earnscleugh. The history and development of Clyde is intrinsically linked with the history of the discovery and mining of gold in Central Otago. In August 1862 the Dunstan Rush began. Although the town was officially named Clyde in 1864, the area was first known as Dunstan in the 1850s (then part of Moutere Station) and as Hartley's township after Horatio Hartley's discovery of gold nearby. The 1862 discovery precipitated a rush to the area, with the first passenger-carrying coach travelling from Dunedin to Clyde in November of that year. A ragged canvas town quickly sprang up, and by December of that year between six and seven thousand miners and settlers occupied Clyde and the surrounding area. Transport and in particular river crossings soon became important local issues. Only a year after the first discovery of gold many seeking their fortunes, sleeping under canvas on the banks of the Clutha River near Clyde were swept away in a sudden flood and up to 100 men were drowned. A photograph dated c.1862 shows a profile of canvas and wooden buildings along the terrace above the river where the town now stands, and a small collection of wooden structures on the lower beach. These early photographs show the Clutha River running below the banks of the town, a road running down to the water but no bridge yet in place. The area on the west of the river formed part of Earnscleugh Station, and was also extensively mined. Initially two boats, one kept on the west and one on the east bank were used to cross the river. In 1862 the enterprising Donald McPherson purchased two punts and made the road to the riverside, operating a ferry service to connect Clyde with the sheep stations and mining settlements on the west. From the middle of 1863 further punts were added, in particular a fast new boat named The Pioneer that made the crossing in a minute. The high cost of ferrying people and goods across the river led to the decision to build a bridge below the town. In July 1874 at a special meeting the town council decided to raise a loan. A plan of Clyde Bridge Reserve dated 1875 shows the Clutha River, the route usually taken by the punt, the road to the river on the Clyde town side and the reserve with no road marked on the Earnscleugh bank of the river. The bridge designed by Vincent County Council Engineer Leslie Duncan Macgeorge (variously spelt McGeorge, 1854-1939), and built by William Grant, was completed in July 1876 at a cost of £6,500. Plans dated 1874 for the 'suspension bridge over river Clutha at Clyde' give details of the structure with its piers and towers, with the suspension wires running over a capped saddle. It was christened 'Clyde Bridge' with a bottle of champagne by the wife of local storekeeper Benjamin Naylor. The mayor and councillors were driven over in a Cobb and Co coach, watched by a celebrating crowd of 300 people. The toll on the bridge for the final six months of 1876 amounted to £111 5s 6d. Only two years later another natural disaster struck Clyde. The winter of 1878 was long and severe, with heavy snowfalls and frosts, and reports of drifts even 100 feet (c.30m) deep in some ravines. A warm spring with a hot north west wind came quickly in late September, followed by torrential warm rain and a rapid snow melt. The Clutha rose higher than had ever been known and stayed in flood for three weeks, according to Gilkison 'one of the most terrible visitations to Central Otago since its first settlement.' Gilkison described the river 'rolling its way to the ocean, its angry surface strewed with dead horses and cattle, houses, bridges, furniture, timber, and farm stacks.' After the lowlands were submerged, the 'great destruction' of the recently completed bridges began. The new suspension bridge at Clyde at first resisted the torrent, but as the trees and debris accumulated against it the wire ropes gave way and the structure was swept downstream, leaving the stone piers still standing. Again, as Gilkison described it: 'On 29 September, at half-past eleven in the morning, the wreck was seen passing Alexandra, and later on, the remains of the Clyde and Roxburgh bridges, lovingly linked together, passed Balclutha on their way to the sea.' Other bridges at Bannockburn, the Lower Shotover and Rocky Point also succumbed. Thornton, writing in a less romantic vein, points out that as the Clyde bridge was swept away it took with it other downstream structures from Roxburgh, Beaumont and finally Balclutha, unable to withstand the wreckage. With the loss of the bridge, the punt was reinstated and the decision made to rebuild on the same site, using the undamaged piers and the salvaged wires. A tender for £4,949 from Duncan McKellar was accepted, and Vincent Pyke laid the foundation stone in April 1880. Before the work was finished extensions were decided upon, at a further cost of £1,198. The bridge was completed in July 1881. Thornton points out that the caps on the nearby Alexandra Bridge were of cement plaster, perhaps a likely construction detail for the same features on the Clyde Bridge. The decking was timber and the bridge had diagonal wooden railings on either side, perhaps also functioning as bracing. In a view to the west, the raw Central Otago landscape of stacks of new gold tailings is evident. Nearly fifty years later this structure was apparently no longer able to meet the needs of motorised transport and a replacement steel arch suspension bridge was planned. By the 1920s there were several early bridges in the Vincent County Council area required attention, and the Council engaged Wellington-based consulting engineers Vickerman and Lancaster to undertake an extensive programme of new works. The new superstructure and the partially rebuilt piers and abutments of the Clyde Bridge were their designs. The original intention in reconstructing the bridge was to resite it, but this plan was abandoned in the face of the strong public desire to retain the historic piers. Plans for this structure dated 1931 describe the earlier bridge and details the removal of the towers from the piers. The tender was let to St. Bathans builder and contractor Thomas Wilkinson, well known for his work on the Commercial and Dunstan Hotels in Clyde. When Wilkinson died within a few months of starting on the construction, work was suspended, leaving Clyde without a river crossing once again apart from the bridge at Alexandra, ten kilometres away or a cable chair eight kilometres beyond Clyde, used by orchardists for produce. When four men attempted to use the chair the cable collapsed, three of them drowning in the river. Tenders for the bridge were let again to Williams and Winaley for £7,689. The new bridge was completed by the end of 1934 and formally opened in April 1935. The wife of the County Council Chairman, Mrs. Ritchie, cut the ribbon, and ceremonies were followed with a 'splendid banquet in the Council Chamber.' Some time after the opening of the reconstructed bridge the name changed to Earnscleugh Bridge. Today the bridge continues to provide a link between Earnscleugh and Clyde and remains an important feature in the landscape of the region.

The Earnscleugh Bridge is a single lane 'through truss' road bridge with stone piers and abutments, and a pedestrian walkway on the east side, separate from the carriageway. The piers and abutments date from the first bridge across the Clutha River at Clyde, built in 1874. The bridge was originally a suspension bridge. Floods twice destroyed the suspension structure. There are two stone piers at the river's edge. The piers are constructed in shaped rusticated stone, with a central arch. The wing walls are stacked stone with vertical stone capping. The original towers above the decking height have been removed and concrete extension piles continue on both the west and east sides of the bridge. Thornton describes the main span, 61.4 metres long, as a Pennsylvania camelback truss, with varying slopes on the top chord, two other spans of 13.4 metres and two of 6.7 metres. A camelback truss is a variant of the Parker Truss, where the polygonal top chord has exactly five slopes. The concrete deck is 3.6 metres wide. The wooden cross railings have been replaced with horizontal metal railings. Thornton considers this an attractive structure in its red livery, with local schist masonry in the piers and abutments. The American-design Parker truss is a modified Pratt truss, creating a top chord which did not stay parallel with the bottom chord. This created a lighter structure, capable of longer span, without losing strength. In places such as the United States the Camelback Parker Truss was in common use in the 1920s. The piers and towers built for the first bridge were a vernacular feature of many Central Otago bridges designed by Vincent County engineer Leslie Duncan Macgeorge. Towers designed by Macgeorge and/or built by Grant and McKellar similar to those at Clyde can be seen at the Shakey Bridge, Alexandra, the Lake Hawea outlet bridge, and Daniel O'Connell Bridge (Category I), Ophir. Architect and engineer Geoffrey Thornton considers that the most spectacular of these, with imposing arched schist piers and towers, was the Alexandra Suspension Bridge over the Clutha River (Category I).