Sydney Harbour Bridge: A PART OF SYDNEY HISTORY

The Sydney Harbour Bridge is one of the most recognisable symbols of Australia. The Bridge provides a frame for one of the most beautiful harbours in the world and holds a special place in the city’s heart.
The Sydney Harbour Bridge has connected the Sydney CBD with the North Shore of the harbour since it opened in 1932. It is the world’s largest (but not longest) steel-arch Bridge. It was beaten in length, by New York’s Bayonne Bridge, which is 25 feet longer and opened just four months earlier.
On major celebrations in Sydney history, like New Year’s Eve or the announcement of the Sydney Olympic Games, the Bridge has always been the focal point.
Sydneysiders gather on boats and in the coves and corners of the Sydney Harbour foreshore to watch it explode with spectacular fireworks.
New Year’s Eve celebrations are broadcast each year on news channels all around the world, with the Sydney Harbour Bridge playing a starring role.

Design:

Dr John Job Crew Bradfield is known as the ‘Father of the Bridge’ and was the man behind the concept. Bradfield prepared the general design and the NSW government awarded the construction contract to the English firm Dorman Long and Co. for the odd sum of £4,217,721, 11 shillings and 10 pence on 24 March 1924.
Sir Ralph Freeman, the consulting engineer, prepared the detailed plans. He later had a falling out with Bradfield over the question of who really designed the Bridge. But it was Bradfield’s name that went into the Sydney history books when he lent his name to the Bradfield Highway, which runs across the Bridge.
Up to 800 tenant families were relocated to make way for the approach spans of the Bridge - their homes were destroyed and the families were never compensated.