SYDNEY’S BRIDGE.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 9 August 1924, Page 8

SYDNEY’S BRIDGE.

PREPARING THE WAY. The thousands of people- who have been accustomed- for years to approach tlie city from che Northern Suburbs of toytiney way of the histone landing place of Alilsoii s Point, on. tlie nortii side, Horn wmch tlie principal line, ci terries has run on a six-minute service, the actual crossing occupying lour minutes, have had the reality of the impending changes dua to the construction of the hrkige hi ought home to them receiiviy by dosing of the old point. L' rom the water to-day Milson s Point, so long ti.e businest suburban icartic spot in bydney, with femes plying to it at regular intervals over tue whole 24 hours seven days a, week, presents a. forlorn aspect of desertion, and the rush of packed ferry boats makes its-way, instead, to

a new pontoon giving access to a. new northern suburbs railway terminus and tram terminus some hundreds of yards furtner to the north on the side of .Lavender Bay. Tlie change has been necessary to clear the way for the linage approach, the old Milson’s Point terminus being on part of the land re<l mred lor the great temporary worksimps that- nire about to be constructed by. the contractors. Messrs Dorman, Long and Co. So the face of Sydney titans' to change, and from now onwards the change will be rapid. The clang of steel works will soon oe heard, and when it ceases the North Shore will be to all intents and purposes part of the city proper. Already the City Council is. giving serious attention to costly changes in traffic arteries, involving big resumptions, which mustbe ready immediately the bridge is -opened to tralfic. .before then some sections of the city underground railway, which is being rapidly pushed forward, will be running, so that the new street arrangements require great forethought in ascertaining exactly which

si venues tlio main traffic- Hows will * take, in any circumstances the cost to the City Council will run into hundreds ol’ thousands. The change over of the Mi Ison's Point traffic was a triumph of organisation, tens of thousands of people being tiansported from the new lanoing stage without a hitch. The railway station is on a level with a, pontoon. Yvith the tram passengers it is different. They have to mount the high cliff, and to facilitate this the Government nas installed three of the most modern escalators, or moving stair ways, which are the talk of Syd- ' oey. .Escalators have been in stalled in some of tne big stores before to-day, bat nothing of such dimensions as those now m use has been seen bore beto.e, and ‘‘escalating” is popularly knoAu as Sydney's new joy ride. ‘‘Are you escalating home nowr” is a common query amongst northern suburbanites, and tne trip in the long moving stairways packed with, humanity in the rush hours seems to be a distinct clement of nlcasiye in the daily round of great numbers of people. Tiieie are three escalators, and, uemg icveisible, two can be run tlo-.ui aim one up in the morning rush, and two up and one down m Die evening rush, there are also two spacious fixed stairways for people who...may liavu a prejudice against the novelty and still net confess themselves “aged or infirm,” for which, class of person a passenger lift has been installed. The lift has but limited accommodation, and it was a happy inspiration of the authorities to announce that it was intended for the ‘‘aged or infirm.” It has not yet been overcrowded.