A quick Sydney Harbour Bridge history

It’s Australia’s most recognisable landmark. It’s also one of Sydney’s busiest roads, connecting the city to the North Shore and beyond. Back when it opened in the early 1930s, 11,000 vehicles crossed each day. Today, more than 160,000 vehicles make their way across every single day. Not to mention the many commuters on the trains and on foot which cross the Bridge as well.

It’s the most iconic coat-hanger inspired bridge there is, but how much of the history behind it do you actually know? Weirdly, my brain is peppered with random facts about the Sydney Harbour Bridge after completing the Bridge Climb on my 21st birthday. Should a question ever come up in trivia, I’ve got you covered. For example, there are tens of THOUSANDS of rivets on the bottom of Sydney Harbour from when they were dropped by workers during construction.

Prior to European arrival in 1788, the land on which the bridge would be built on traditionally belonged to the Gadigal People of the Eora Nation. Following the arrival of the British, records show it was first suggested as early as 1815 by convict and architect Francis Greenway that a bridge should be built across the harbour.

From here, a lot of ye old gentlemen proposed ideas and plans to the Government of the time suggesting how best to make this happen. In 1857 it was engineer Peter Henderson who had the idea of making it an iron bridge spanning from Dawes Point (south side) to Milsons Point (north side).

20 years later in 1878, Commissioner WC Bennett proposed a floating bridge and the following year a “high-level bridge” was designed by TS Parrott. A plan to build something was accepted by the Government in 1881 but nothing ever eventuated.

Added fun fact: a tunnel was also suggested for the harbour crossing at the time too. It would take a further 100 years for that idea to eventuate.

Despite there being enough public interest to revive a Royal Commission in 1890 as to why there still wasn’t a bridge, nothing happened for a long period of time and Sydney Harbour stayed bridge-less until…

In 1900, the Minister for Works EW O’Sullivan announced a design competition, and this is when Dr JJC Bradfield first got involved. He would become Chief Engineer of the Sydney Harbour Bridge and Metropolitan Railway Construction in 1912.

By 1922, the New South Wales Government had given the construction contract of the bridge to English firm Dorman Long and Co Ltd. An arch bridge at a quoted price of £4,217,721 11s 10d ($8,435,443 AUD or $357,985,104 in today's money) was chosen in the end as it was cheaper than the alternative cantilever and suspension bridge proposals and also provided greater rigidity making it better suited for the heavy loads expected to cross it.

On July 28, 1923, ‘The turning of the sod’ ceremony took place on the north shore, with the first work starting on the bridge approaches and approach spans. A few years later, in September 1926, the piers on each side of the bridge had been constructed, which meant steelwork could begin. That’s right, their construction plan was to build on each side of the harbour and meet in the middle. You’d want to hope the engineers were confident in their measurements.

Work for the famous arches started on October 26, 1928, with a giant “creeper crane” built on each side of the Bridge to lift the steel and workmen up and finally, on the 19th of August 1930, the two arches touched for the first time. A great relief to everyone involved.

After a couple more years of final construction and load testing in the early 1930s, on March 19 1932, the Sydney Harbour Bridge was officially opened to traffic. It took almost 9 years to complete the Bridge construction in its entirety.

Of course, the official opening wasn’t without drama. NSW Premier Jack Lang had declared the opening day a public holiday, and the largest crowd Sydney had seen at the time - estimated to be one million pedestrians - gathered.

Premier Lang was meant to have the honours of the official ribbon-cutting but had his thunder stolen by Captain Francis de Groot. This was a big deal at the time, as Lang had decided that he would be the one to open the Bridge, and not a member of British Royalty. De Groot, not fond of that plan, galloped up on his horse and cut the ribbon with his sword yelling “I declare this bridge open in the name of His Majesty the King and of all decent people”. He was taken away and the ribbon was re-tied for Lang.

In a very WILD fact, 1982 was the 50th anniversary of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, and for the first time since it was opened, the Bridge was closed to cars with pedestrians given full access to it for the day. The Sydney Harbour Bridge was declared an International Historic Civil Engineers Landmark in 1988 and she remains the true beauty we all know and love today.

Thousands of workers contributed to the construction of the Bridge. Boilermakers, carpenters, engineers, architects, stonemasons, draughtsmen, joiners, riveters, secretaries and crane drivers were all employed in a time where the economy was slowing due to the Great Depression. Construction of the Bridge was one of Australia’s largest employment projects at the time and earned the nickname “The Iron Lung” as it kept so many people in work for such a long time.

Working on the Bridge didn’t come without danger though, and sadly 16 men lost their lives during the construction, with many more injured. However, there was at least one survivor of a fall off the Bridge. It is believed that the man's hammer broke the surface of the water below, so although he broke a lot of bones, the worker survived.

One of the most famous workers on the Sydney Harbour Bridge in its life post-construction is actor Paul Hogan who worked as a rigger on the bridge during the early 1970s before getting his big break on talent program New Faces.

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