SYDNEY'S BIG BRIDGE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21161, 19 April 1932, Page 6

SYDNEY'S BIG BRIDGE.

DEMOLISHING THE PLANT. LAST OF TH? WORKS. GREAT STEEL WRECKAGE. ' Not so very long ago Milson's Point presented a scene of tremendous activity, says the Sydney Morning Herald. The largest bridge fabricating shops in the Empire, capable of employing more than 2000 men a day, in three shifts, worked incessantly. Every few minutes ferries drew into the wharf, disgorged their human cargo, and departed, full again, for Circular Quay. Trains cam* ia, whistled, went out again. Cargo steamers, with granite, or steel, or machinery, berthed beside the workshops. Foremen's whistles blew. There was'all the orderly disorder of industry; all the frenzy o! human traffic. To-day ? A giant crane, like a hungry monster, slowly eats its way into the workshops, and in its path there is left nothing but ruin. Girders that once supported the great'roof lie on the ground behind it, and cables, chains, glass,, iron sheetitig, dismembered machines. A handful of workmen, gloomy, dispirited, follow in the wake of the all-devouring crane, and load material on to lorries, or prepare to ship it on board steamers that will come and take it to the end of the earth. Blue prints lie trampled underfoot, torn, and muddy. Pipes and rods and rivets> and washers lie about like the articles of a junk shop. Like a Deserted Building. Milson's Point wharf and station echo to one's footsteps like a deserted building. Old papers, old bottles, old cigarette packets, old magazines lie where once all was kept clean, so that Mr. Paterfamilias, racing from the ferry to catch the train that would land him at his station in time for the hot roast, would have unimpeded progress. Half a dozen workmen with picks and levers demolish the old platform?. A man with a bag rummages through* a heap of rubbish—and triumphantly produces a full packet of cigarettes. Another pulls down a sign from a kiosk. On the edge of the wharf, where three weeks ago they would have had their legg amputated by incoming ferries, two men sit calmly fishing. For the present, the old wharves, the escalators, and the shops _ will remain. But in a month or two the great area which was occupied by Dorman, Long and Company, will be as bare of machinery and building as an inland plateau- Already about 3000 tons of machinery and material —three shiploads—have been removed- Another 2000 tons have to go. "Heavy" Shop Dismantled. The "heavy" shop, whichiiwas one of the greatest in the has been totally demolished. It will be re-erected, just as it was here, at' the company'i work at Middlesbrough, England. There it mil be used for the fabrication of heavy plate work such as is now being used in the construction of modern hotels in London, and in the .building of large bridges. England is anxiously waiting for this shop, which has already done such yeoman service. Electric overhead cranes, heavy drills, planing machines, sheaiing machines, straining machines, plate-bending machines —nearly all have been dismantled. Some have gone, or are to go, to India; others to South Africa. The roofs and glass of the buildings have been taken down. The great frame is following—it will go to England. The bungalow office, so familiar to M'ilson's Point ferry passengers, will likewise come down. It is sad to see if go, but the owners say there is no use for it in Sydnev.