SYDNEY'S BRIDGE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21118, 27 February 1932, Page 13

SYDNEY'S BRIDGE.

OPENING CELEBRATIONS.

SPECTACLE BY SEA AND LAND. MANY VISITORS FROM DOMINION. Inquiries made in Auckland yesterday revealed a notable increase in the number of passengers booked to travel by the intercolonial steamers to Sydney for the purpose of attending the celebrations in connection with the official opening of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Very complete arrangements for the reception and entertainment of the visitors have been made by the Government of New South Wales, the Sydney City Council and other bodies which have arranged special functions for the occasion

There will be a spectacular display of aircraft and watercraft over and under the bridge on the day of tho official opening. In splendour and graphic demonstration, an historic land pageant will rank with the best of similar spectacles staged in older countries. A thrilling aerial bombing display will take place over Fort Denison, and hundreds of sea-craft, including ocean-going liners, inter-State vessels, ferry steamers, motor-launches and sailing boats, will form a picturesque procession.

Leading international cricketers will take par)> in a Sheffield Shield match between New South Wales and South Australia, and other attractions include the Australian Jockey Club's Easter meeting, a harbour regatta, olympiad athletic meeting, annual championship surf lifesaving carnival and exhibition lawn tennis, featuring Australia's champions. The night celebrations will include a Venetian carnival and fireworks display on tho harbour, brilliant flood-lighting of the bridge by warships, illuminations on shipping and tho waterfront, and floodlighting of city buildings. During the ensuing fortnight, celebrations of a magnitude and grandeur unprecedented in the Southern Hemisphere have been arranged, tho attractions ranging from tho Royal Easter Show to special tourist trips to tho unrivalled beauty spots in and around Sydney. There will also be specially-conducted tours of country towns, farms and sheep stations. The question of building a bridge across Sydney Harbour had been a matter of almost continuous discussion since the later years of last century and the rapid ipcrease in population and the consequent close settlement of the northern suburbs across the harbour brought the problem to a matter of urgency. In 1922, therefore, the New South Wales Government called tenders for the design and construction of a bridge. The successful design and tender was for the building of an " arch bridge of 28 panels, with 10 approach spans and piers and pylons in granite finish." The contract was signed on March 24. 1924, and the contract price was £4,217,721. Foot, rail and road traffic cross the bridge on a deck 160 ft. wide, the vehicular traffic being carried on a. 67ft. roadway. Of the 51,000 tons of steel in tho bridge, 38,000 tons aro in the main span. The bridge is one of tho greatest engineering feats of modern times, and its successful completion is a chapter of .engineering history. Tho name of 'its builder, Mr. Lawrence Ennis, is justly famous throughout the world. The result of hij efforts and those of his staff now spans the Sydney Harbour.