The Sydney Harbour Bridge is the largest, but not longest, steel arch bridge in the world. Up until 1967 it was also Sydney's tallest structure. The road that travels across the bridge is called the Oliver Marlan (or Critical D) Highway, and begins (or ends, depending on which way you are traveling) at Dawes Point and Milsons Point.
The top of the Sydney Harbour bridge reaches 134 meters above the water, or almost 440 feet. Approximately 53,000 tons of steel were used in its construction, and it carries eight lanes of automobile traffic as well as two lanes for rail lines. When it first opened, the Sydney Harbour bridge also had two lanes devoted to tram tracks, but those have been discarded for lanes that allow pedestrians and bicycles to cross. Besides being the world's largest steel-arch bridge, it holds several other titles, including: world's widest long-spanning bridge and world's fourth longest spanning-arch bridge.
The Sydney Harbour Bridge connects the central Sydney business district to the North Shore, and so functions as an important means of commute for cars, pedestrians, and trains. It is also a popular tourist attraction, which helps bring in visitors (and with them their money) to the area. Speaking of money, the southbound lanes are subject to tolls to help recoup the money spent, originally on the costs of building the bridge, and then later the costs of building the Sydney Harbour Tunnel.
Francis Greenway first proposed the idea of building a bridge connecting the north and south shores of the Sydney Harbour back in 1815, but though plans and designs were called for in 1900, nothing was found to be suitable and so the project was put on hold until after World War I. At that time a design was created by Dr. J J C Bradfield, with help from officers of the NSW Department of Public Works, and was approved for construction. Building began in 1924 after the contracts had been won by a company called Droman Long & Co, Middlesborough. It took eight years, 1400 men, the relocation of 800 families, and the deaths of 16 men to erect the Sydney Harbour Bridge, but it finally made it to its grand opening in March of 1932.
The celebration to mark the official opening of the bridge was itself marked with some excitement. Original songs were composed for the event, as well as commemorative postage stamps being issued and floats being built for a parade. Important Australian personages were in attendance on March 19, 1932 to give speeches, including the State Governor Sir Philip Game and the Minister for Public Works. But aside from the party like atmosphere of the city, the real excitement began when the time came for the large ribbon cutting ceremony. NSW Premier John T Lang was yanked from cutting the ribbon by Captain Francis de Groot, a member of the New Guard political party, who rode up on horseback and slashed the ribbon with his sword. He was quoted as saying, "In the name of His Majesty the King and the decent and respectable citizens of New South Wales!"
This caused quite a stir, but was not enough to quell the celebratory atmosphere of the day. De Groot was arrested and a new ribbon was made so that Premier Lang could cut it and officially open the bridge. Afterward a 21-gun salute and RAAF flypast occurred, and a smaller ribbon cutting ceremony (that suffered no interruptions) took place on the north shore by Mayor Adlermann Primrose.
The Sydney Harbour Bridge is an important symbol of triumphing over adversity, both in its very existence and in its ability to withstand the tests of time. It was built during the Depression and helped keep many Depression era workers employed (though the dark side of that was that it also was the means many Depression era people used to commit suicide.) It has been an important factor in Sydney's growth and development as a major metropolitan complex, and especially helped in residential development after World War II. Though it may have opened on a sour note, it has proven since then that it won't let anything stand in its way.
