http://australia.gov.au/about-australia/australian-story/sydney-harbour-bridge
Australian Government
australia.gov.au
Sydney Harbour Bridge
The Sydney Harbour Bridge is one of Australia's most well known and photographed landmarks. It is the world's largest (but not the longest) steel arch bridge with the top of the bridge standing 134 metres above the harbour.
Fondly known by the locals as the 'Coathanger', the Sydney Harbour Bridge celebrated its 70th birthday in 2002, with its official opening in March 1932.
A history of the Sydney Harbour Bridge
It was as early as 1815 that Francis Greenway proposed building a bridge from the northern to the southern shore of the harbour.
It took some time for this to become a reality with design submissions invited in 1900. All the submissions were considered unsuitable and so the momentum for the bridge crossing stopped.
However, after the First World War more serious plans were made, with a general design for the Sydney Harbour Bridge prepared by Dr J J C Bradfield and officers of the NSW Department of Public Works. The New South Wales Government then invited worldwide tenders for the construction of the Bridge in 1922 and the contract was let to English firm Dorman Long and Co of Middlesbrough.
The Sydney Harbour Bridge construction started in 1924 and took 1,400 men eight years to build at a cost of £4.2 million. Six million hand driven rivets and 53,000 tonnes of steel were used in its construction. It now carries eight traffic lanes and two rail lines, one in each direction, but at the time of its construction the two eastern lanes were tram tracks. They were converted to road traffic when Sydney closed down its tram system in the 1950s.
An interesting past
The Bridge has an interesting past including its official opening on 19 March 1932.
