Sydney Harbour Bridge turns 75

On Monday 19th of March, the Sydney Harbour Bridge is 75 years old! Happy Birthday to you. Sydney is closing the bridge to car traffic on Sunday 18th, and every ten minutes people with a booking will be able to walk across the bridge to celebrate the birthday. I have not heard that they are giving out cake or balloons, but watch the news tonight. TSS at 6pm and the Reuben family at approx. 2pm are walking across the bridge. I hope to see some of their photo's. Thanks TSS.

Here are some facts about the Bridge:

• The top of the arch actually rises and falls about 180 mm due to changes in the temperature!
• In 1932, 96 steam locomotives were positioned in various ways to test the load capacity of the Bridge.
• One of Australia's well known celebrities, Paul Hogan, was one of the painters contracted to give the Bridge another 270,000 litre coat of paint.
• When the Bridge opened, it cost a horse and rider three pence and a car six pence to cross. Now horse and riders cannot cross, you can bicycle across in a special lane and walk across the Bridge for free. Cars cost around A$3.30 for a southbound trip and it is free to go northbound.
• In 1932, the average annual daily traffic was around 11,000 and now it is around 160,000 vehicles per day.
• The Sydney Harbour Tunnel was built to cope with ever increasing harbour traffic problems and opened in August 1992 . It is 2.3 kilometres long and cost A$554 million to construct. It is strong enough to withstand the impact of earthquakes and sinking ships. It carries around 75,000 vehicles a day.

The opening ceremony in 1932 was marred by De Groot, who felt that the Bridge should only be opened by Royalty, not by a mere Premier, Jack Lang, click here for more information.

The bridge was designed by JCC Bradfield. Here is what Wikipedia has to say about him.

John Job Crew Bradfield (December 26, 1867 - September 23, 1943) was an engineer who designed the Sydney Harbour Bridge and had a grand vision for Sydney's railway system that has only been partly fulfilled. Other accomplishments include the design of the Story Bridge, Brisbane. He also designed the Cataract and Burrinjuck Dams.

Bradfield was born in Sandgate, Queensland, the youngest son of John Edward Bradfield (1823/4 - 1902) and Maria Crew (1828 - 1917). He received his early education in Ipswich, Queensland, attending Ipswich North State School and Ipswich Grammar School before completing a Bachelor of Engineering degree in 1889 at the University of Sydney, and a Master of Engineering in 1896. In 1924 Bradfield received the first doctorate of science in engineering at the University of Sydney for his thesis on electric railways and the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

In later years he developed the Bradfield Scheme (never implemented) for diverting some coastal rivers of Queensland onto the western side of the Great Dividing Range.

He married Edith Jenkins, daughter of John Ventris Jenkins, on 28th May 1891. They had five sons, including Keith Noel Everal (1910 - 2006) and Stanley George (1906 - 1951); and one daughter, Mary Margaret (1892 - 1984).

The Bradfield Highway is named after him.