You will hear a radio presenter interviewing a man about the Sydney Harbour Bridge

Anne: Well, good morning again everyone and welcome to “perspective ”, the weekly New South Wales Radio programme on subjects of general interest from our local area. Today I have in the studio Mr. George Symonds. Good morning George.

George: Good morning Anne.

Anne: So, what are you going to talk to us about today George?

George: Well, for people from New South Wales and particularly Sydney, this will be of great interest – I hope. I’m going to tell you a little about Sydney Harbour bridge .

Anne: Wow. That’ll be so interesting.

George: I think so. To start with I’d like to tell you a little about the size of the bridge. The arch span is five hundred and three metres and the weight of the steel arch is thirty-nine thousand tonnes . The summit is 134m above mean sea level, though it can actually increase by as much as 18 centimeters on hot days as the result of steel expanding in heat. The two pairs of pylons at each end are about 89 meters high and are made of concrete and granite . The steel used for the bridge was largely imported. About 79percent came from the United Kingdom but the rest was Australian-made. The granite was quarried in Moruya down the coast, and the concrete is also Australian.

Anne: So, most of the steel used to make our great bridge actually came from England?

George: Yes, I’m afraid so. However the work force were all Aussie!

Anne: Thank God for that. When was the bridge actually built?

George: The bridge was opened in 1932 but work first began in 1924, with the construction of the bridge approaches and spans, with two separate teams building the arch on each side working towards each other. The arch was successfully joined on august the 19th 1930 . I’m afraid that working practices weren’t very fair in those days and the local government demolished 438 homes which were in the way of the approaches, and as many as 800 families living there were displaced without compensation. The standards of industrial safety were inadequate too. 16 workers died during its construction, mainly from falling off the bridge.

Anne: I didn’t realise that.

George: Yes. The bridge was formally opened on the 19th March 1932 by the Premier of New South Wales, Mr Jack Lang. When it was opened, it was the longest single span steel arch bridge in the world and it was one of the greatest engineering pieces of its time. Several songs were also composed in advance for the occasion but these have now been largely lost or forgotten. However, three postage stamps were issued to commemorate the opening of the bridge and these still exist. One of these stamps, with a face value of five shillings , is now worth several hundred dollars today.

Anne: So, that’s the history of the bridge. Is the bridge still the same today as when it was built?

George: No, it’s quite different. The basic structure is the same of course. Originally the bridge was constructed to carry a road, two sets of tram lines and railways . In 1957, the two tram lines were removed when Sydney abolished its trams, thus giving the bridge two more traffic lanes.

Today it carries eight traffic lanes, two railroad lanes and a footpath along its eastern side. One of the eastern traffic lanes is now a dedicated bus lane. The bridge is often crowded and in 1992 the Harbour Tunnel was opened to help carry the traffic load. More than 160,000 vehicles cross the bridge each day. Before the Harbour Tunnel was opened, this figure was as high as 182 thousand and would be much higher today if it were not for the Tunnel.Pedestrians, horses and push bikes are not allowed on the bridge anymore   .

Anne: Wow. The bridge actually carries that much?

George: Oh yes. Actually, before the Harbour Bridge opened, it was completely packed with railway carriages , trams and buses to stress test its load bearing capacity. While it has had many traffic jams since and half a million people walked across it on its 50th anniversary , it has probably never been asked to carry that much of a load since.

Anne: Amazing. And I suppose the toll for crossing the bridge has changed a bit too?

George: I’m afraid so!! The initial toll charged for a car was 6 pence while a horse and rider was charged 3 pence. Today the toll costs three dollar​​​​​​​s​​​​​​​ but is only charged when travelling to the South as an efficiency measure to speed up traffic flow.