A WONDER BRIDGE

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXI, Issue 306, 10 December 1931, Page 5

A WONDER BRIDGE

SYDNEY HARBOUR SPAN. BRILLIANT OPENING CELEBRATIONS PLANNED. Costing, with its massive approaches, £10,000,000, and taking more than eight years to build, the bridge over Sydney Harbour now nearing completion represents the largest and heaviest one-arch span in the world. When the linking of Sydney North with the city proper across the water on the south became inevitable by means other than the present powerful ferry services, it was feared that a bridge connection would mean the disfigurement of one of the most beautiful harbours of any country. Event, have removed that apprehension. The gigantic structure now receiving its finishing touches tn readiness for the opening on 19th March next will in truth* be “a thing of beauty and a joy forever.” Notwithstanding its enormous bulk, the bridge in design is singularly graceful, giving the impression of combined strength and beauty. Of the 50,300 tons of steelwork, 37.000 tons are contained in the main arch span This span consists of a two-hinged arch of 1,650 foot span, with five approach spans on either side, the total length of steel structure being 3,770 feet. In addition to four railway tracks there is a main roadway 57 feet wide, and also two footways each 10 feet in width. Eighty trains, 6,000 other vehicles, and 40,000 pedestrians may pass in each direction per hour. The railway tracks connecting the station nearest to the approach on the north side with the underground line which encircles the city on the south are 2 J miles in length. The number of rivets used m the structure is 4.750,000. The highest point of the steelwork is 414 feet. The weight of the thrust from each side of this huge arch is transferred from the lower chord to the concrete skewbacks through steel pedestals, each having a bearing area of 504 square feet, the pressure on the skewbacks under the maximum thrust nf 44,100,0001b5. being 8001bs. per square inch. The towers and pylons, which are features of the bridge, are 285 feet high, being faced with granite obtained 170 miles away, where one block of 2,000 tons was quarried. The abutment towers resist the enormous thrust from the arch As a port, Sydney is fifth in importance in the British Empire, hence the urgency of the consideration that a bridge would not, by piers or otherwise, present any obstruction to navigation. Sydney, also, is the second white city in the Empire and is one of the show places for Dominion tourists. Elaborate arrangements have been made for the opening of the bridge. The celebrations are to be on a scale of spectacular magnificence unequalled anywhere on an occasion of the kind. A programme of events, picturesque and imposing in their grandeur, for sea and land and the air, is being prepared by committees of experts. The week will be a memorable one, coinciding with the great annual agricultural show of New South Wales and the big race meeting of the Australian Jockey Club. By day and night, too, there will be attractions subsidiary to the main celebrations. Already tourists are planning their movements so as to participate in the historic occasion and witness the elaborate pageantry that will a mpany it.