Page 43 - Culture Mag

The Sydney Harbour Bridge is an iconic structure not only for its city but also for Australia as a whole. An arch bridge across Sydney Harbour (Port Jackson), it opened in 1932 as the main highway and railroad link between Sydney on the south shore and its suburbs to the north. Its span of 1,650 feet (500 meters) makes it is one of the longest steel-arch bridges in the
world.
The key figure behind the bridge was John Bradfield, a civil
engineer with the New South Wales Department of Public
Works. In 1912 he presented two different plans for a bridge
over the harbor, one with a suspension design and the other
with a cantilever design. The next year his cantilever design
was accepted. Although the project was delayed by World
War I, Bradfield continued to advocate for the bridge as part
of an electric railway system for Sydney and its suburbs. In
1922 the Sydney Harbour Bridge Act was passed, providing
for either a cantilever or arch bridge. Bradfield had made sure
that the act provided for an arch bridge after finding that new
processes for making lighter steel made such a structure
possible. The contract to build the bridge was awarded to the
English company Dorman Long & Co. The approved plan
called for an arch bridge linking Dawes Point on the south with Milson’s Point on the north.
The arch bridge was chosen because it was both less expensive than a cantilever design and capable of handling heavier loads. Dorman Long hired Sir Ralph Freeman to perform detailed design work during construction, which was supervised by Bradfield.