Bradfield & the Bridge

Bradfield was a shortarse, a short bloke, and by the time the Coathanger was under construction in the 1920s, a chrome dome with half his hair gone. He had a big bulgy forehead and a stiff moustache and was never off the construction site.

He was born in Queensland in 1867. His father was labourer who fought in the Crimean War. Bradfield went to U Syd (University of Sydney) and graduated with a Bachelor of Engineering in 1889.

1815 was the year a bridge was first put forward. A mere 109 years before they actually got started on the bastard. Francis Greenway it was who suggested it, a year after he'd stumbled ashore.

One of our top colonial architects, Greenway was. He got nicked for forgery and transported (sent to Australia) for 14 years. He died here in 1837 and there's nearly 50 of his buildings in the Sydney CBD. The Macquarie Lighthouse (South Head at the entrance to Sydney Harbour), Hyde Park Barracks, St. James Church and the new Government House. Not bad for an old lag (ex con).



The same year Greenway arrived, an ex-convict called Billy Blue started up a ferry service across the Harbour. Him and others ran passenger ferries until the 1840s. That's when the first horse-and-cart ferry started. It went from Dawes Point (Sydney side) to Milsons Point (North Shore). (The Coathanger goes from Dawes Point to Milsons Point.) The vehicle ferries were it until the Coathanger came. The Harbour got pretty bloody crowded with ferries criss-crossing but still people had to wait to get across. Business and the growth of the colony was suffering.

Eventually, at the beginning of the 20th century, concrete and steel technology had moved along a bit and new bridge designs were possible. Steel had got fairly cheap so Sydney could now afford a nice big bridge across the Harbour.

The competition for a design was opened in 1900. The construction started in 1924 and the Bridge was opened in 1932. He was 64. He had spent his entire adult life on the Bridge in one way or another.

In 1912 (same year the Titanic went down) he submitted a design for a suspension bridge to the design competition. In 1913 his idea for a cantilever bridge from Dawes Point to Milsons Point was accepted. In 1922 he went overseas to look at getting the bridge constructed (we didn't have enough steel then). Later that year he suggested the official documents for the bridge be changed to allow a cantilever or arch bridge rather than just a cantilever bridge.



The bridge we got.


(J Stewart & Co. 1903)

The Bridge we should've got. Not Bradfield's own cantilever bridge but one as near as dammit. This type of bridge looks better in this sketch than it would've been in real life. At the time pretty much every other bridge in the world looked like this. It would've just been a bridge. The Coathanger is an icon.

Bradfield is also responsible for the design of the City Circle (Sydney's underground railway), Brisbane's Story Bridge and a few dams and such like on other parts of the state. All good stuff.

But in his dotage he joined the Brigade of Nutters and wanted to turn the rivers inland.

Turning the rivers inland or even just one river is a scheme proposed by fuckwitted radio announcers with credulous listeners at every mention of drought. It is an feat of engineering on a scale that would give even God the heebies.

Linkage

Bradfield's Bridge - lots of pictures & stuff about the competition & design & some lovely construction photos.

Biog page at the State Records site. They have photos also. Go there and do a search on "Bradfield".

City of Sydney.nsw.gov.au - photos old & new & links down the bottom.

Bridge Walk

You better get a cuppa tea. This is going to be a long post. There's plenty of pictures but.

Yesterday was the birthday of Our Bridge, the Coathanger, the Sydney Harbour Bridge. I booked for the Bridge Walk as soon as booking was open and walked it with a couple of mates from Sydney.

Would've been good to see the ceremony in the morning with the smoking (smudging) and the fly-overs and the marching bands but next time (2032). Had a thing on in the morning I couldn't wriggle out of but I got away at lunch time and set off.

All was fine and dandy until it came to swapping trains at Hornsby, as per instructions. About a hundred of us Bridge Walkers clambered off the train to Central and started up the stairs to the North Shore line. Halfway up them a garbled announcement came over the PA. Something about "a death on the tracks" at North Sydney. We descended on the station attendants like anxious lemmings. They had no idea what'd happened. The news had just come through. We were told the trains were running across the Bridge and to get back on the train we'd just got off.

It was gone.

We hung about on the platform waiting for the next one and speculated about the death to pass the time. A queue jumper crossing the track at North Sydney and got squished? Some Dear Old Thing who'd walked it at the 1932 opening had carked it on the way to todays' walk? An over-keen photographer had climbed up onto a pylon, forgotten to hang on and dropped onto the tracks in front of a moving train? Turns out this was going it a bit but there was a body found on the tracks. We'll find out what happened in a few days maybe.

The next train to Central came and we piled on. They laid on extra trains but the extra trains were full of extra people. I spent the trip squashed into a corner with a close-up on someone's elbow.

Dear Old Things on the train entertained us with their stories of walking the Bridge on opening day in 1932. Most of them were under escort by rellies and had those seat-onna-stick things to sit on if they needed a rest during the Walk. There was also a gaggle of Dear Old Things on their own, twittering with excitement and happy to still be alive for its 75th birthday.

With all that to listen to the trip didn't seem very long. As the train came up out of the City Circle (Sydney's underground railway) and across the Bridge, we goggled out the windows at the walkers and all the kids and Dear Old Things waved at each other.

I got out at North Sydney station and wandered about near the rows of port-a-loos until my mates showed then we followed the crowd.



Heading along the Bridge approach from North Sydney station. It was pretty light still at this point but by the time we were on the bridge proper, the clouds were getting darker and darker.



They gave us green hats. As we came up the rise towards the Bridge there was a bloke with a microphone exhorting us to collect our free hats in nice orderly queues. We did.



Thar she blows. Our Bridge. As we came up to it we could hear How great thou art booming from the ABC's speaker stacks.



Our boys and girls in blue made sure there was no aggro.



Finest Pommy steel and 6 million rivets.







Volunteer taking someone's photo for them. They had megaphones and were perched on those towers every fifty yards or so.



Bridge Climbers waving at us proles walking below them. There's some crowd that does regular Bridge climbs for the hale and hearty.



A chopper flew round and round the Bridge the whole time. No TV station logo and it was dark blue so it was probably PolAir.



Cross-brace thingy and directions for getting in the right lane.



Presumably access for the painters and rivet tighteners and the Inspector of Bridges. Dunno if there is such a post as the Inspector of Bridges but wouldn't it be a cool job?



More Climbers and what looked like wind chimes. Thought I heard a couple of quiet chimes over the hubbub of everyone saying "are those wind chimes?" but there was hardly a breeze. South-east (left) and south-west pylons in the background.



Looking back from between the south-west (left) and south-est pylons, at the Sydney CBD end. There's two lots of Climbers up there. See them? One lot on the left bottom corner of the span and the other up the top.



Some sort of maintenance person, possibly in charge of the spanners for the speakers. Aunty had stacks of speakers set up along the Bridge broadcasting loops of the 1932 opening day speeches, popular somgs of the day and world events happening since the Bridge was opened. It's Aunty's 75th birthday this year as well.



South East pylon. The museum is in it and there's a viewing platform up the top. You can see the whole of the Harbour and the museum has some cool movies of the construction and stuff.



Bored volunteers and a TV crew against the Sydney CBD skyline. That thin thing with the knob on top is the Sydney Tower AKA Centrepoint Tower.



And still they came. In fact, they were still coming after dark. They were given hats-with-lights-on when it got dark and on the midday news today there was some pretty footage of them walking across and the Bridge all lit up.



Electronic signs told us where to get off and an ancient road sign lent a hand.



"HAPPY 75TH *heart*" hanging out the window of a narrow late 19th/early 20th century terrace house in Cumberland Street or George Street in The Rocks.



Bored coppers and ambos (cops and paramedics) near the south end toll-gate. We were a quiet and healthy crowd and they had bugger all to do all day.



Never turn your camera off. That's when they do a fly-over. The zoom kicked in as soon as they disappeared.



National Trust building. There was a concert on there or behind it on Observatory Hill and both were swarming with people in green hats.



Heading for the pub. The Grosvenor Street off-ramp leading to The Rocks.


It was a lovely walk. Australians are a pretty calm crowd. (Except at the footy and the cricket of course.) It was great to see the Bridge at one's leisure. Gotta go on one of those climbing tours over the top one day. The train home was not as full but people were still talking about it, asking strangers "did you do the walk?" and swapping stories about their neighbour's granddad who worked on its construction and so on.


More reading
Professor Bashir, current NSW Governor, cut the ribbon for the birthday celebrations and the guy who started the Bridge Climb crowd has the sword de Groot used to cut the ribbon at the 1932 opening. (SMH)

Dr Sue Ogle was born on the Bridge in an ambulance on the way to hospital.

The Bridge is now on the National Heritage List.

Iemma AKA Morris Dilemma, current NSW Premier, bunged up a plaque on Dawes Point (the Circular Quay side) commemorating the 16 Bridge workers killed in its construction.

"[The plaque] was warmly welcomed by Jacqueline Porter, daughter of J. Alexander Faulkner, a 40-year-old rigger who was killed on March 30, 1931, when struck by a piece of metal plating that fell from a crane working overhead...
Captain Faulkner ... had served with distinction as an engineer on the Somme, had survived the "horrors of war", only to be killed on the half-complete Harbour Bridge." (SMH)

If you missed Constructing Australia: The Bridge on the telly last night, Aunty will proably be flogging it on DVD.

Crowds praised for good behaviour

Walkers stories

Links to photos and videos here at the Herald, including 10 pages of souvineer photos to buy.

Sydney Webcam showing the Bridge.

Under the Bridge with Sydney Spy.


No workie
You couldn't comment on last week's Bridge post. Blogger was having a little lie down but it's all right now. Bung yer Bridge stories up here.


Jen
Finally answered your question about the red flowering plant at the Cockle Bay Wetland. Only took me a fortnight.


Sorrento Road
Some excellent news on Davis & Settree. Dave & Barb, the current owners, left us a note to say they're adding the townhouses behind the historic building not knocking it down. Thank yer, much appreciated.

Okay. I'm all blogged out. See you Wednesday.

The Coathanger

Our Bridge, the Sydney Harbour Bridge, under construction in 1930.

The Bridge was designed in 1916 by John Bradfield, started in 1923 or 24, finished in 1931 and opened on the 19th of March 1932. It cost £4 million and was finally paid off in 1988.

"The Sydney Harbour Bridge construction ... took 1400 men eight years to build at a cost of £4.2 million. Six million hand driven rivets and 53,000 tonnes of steel were used in its construction. It now carries eight traffic lanes and two rail lines, one in each direction, but at the time of its construction the two eastern lanes were tram tracks. They were converted to road traffic when Sydney closed down its tram system in the 1950s." (Culture and Recreation.gov.au)

The main names associated with the Bridge are Bradfield, Lang and de Groot. Bradfield was the architect and the road across the Bridge, the Bradfield Highway, is named after him. I'll talk more about him later.

So there they all are on opening day. It's a sunny Autumn day, right in the middle of the Great Depression. The people are hungry, angry and frightened. They don't know it yet but that great Australian racehorse Phar Lap will soon be dead and they're going to need another icon to replace him. NSW Premier Jack Lang, NSW Governor Sir Phillip Game are all there, along with all these military blokes on horseback in their shiniest uniforms and hundreds of thousands of Sydneysiders.

Lang steps forward with the scissors to cut the ribbon and declare the Bridge officially open. But before he can cut it this wanker de Groot pushes forward on his horse and slashes the ribbon with his sword, declaring the Bridge open "in the name of the decent and respectable people of New South Wales". By "decent and respectable people" he means his fellow fascists.

Lang is miffed, obviously, but the ribbon is sticky-taped back together and Lang gives it a snip for the cameras and declares it officially open. Then it's on for young and old. The Sydneysiders pour across the Bridge in their thousands and de Groot is hauled off to the copshop where they try to charge him with playing silly-buggers and going armed in public but, due to his being entitled to carry a sword whilst in military uniform at official events, they can only fine him £5 and tell him he's a naughty boy.

Would I rather de Groot hadn't stuck his oar in? Fuck no. Nuffing like a nice bit of soap opera and an arrest to liven up the proceedings and it didn't do the Coathanger any lasting harm.

Setting

The Great Depression - a time of massive unemployment, poverty and fear throughout much of the world.

Phar Lap - great Australian hero and racehorse, born in New Zealand, won the Melbourne Cup and other big races in Australia, killed (possibly) by American gansters.

Pre-Bridge traffic - "1890 ... Vehicular access to the north shore was undertaken with a series of smaller bridges located further westwards in the harbour, but this was insufficient for the traffic in the Sydney/North Sydney area."

Players

Bradfield - designer of the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

Sir Phillip Game - Governor of NSW in 1932.

de Groot (wanker)

Jack Lang - the Big Fella, Premier of NSW in 1932.

Construction and History

Potted history and some photos at the Bridge Climb site.

Photos and stuff at the Australian National Maritime Museum at Darling Harbour.

Rejected Bridge plans and more Bridge photos at the Museum of Sydney. They also have the Bridge in lego.

Stories about the building and opening of the bridge with construction photos from the earlier stages as well.

Great drawing on Kilts to Kangaroos showing the stages of construction. The author workeed on the Bridge and walked it the day it opened.

The City of Sydney site has some recent photos of the Bridge as well ones from the opening and construction.

Beautiful close-ups of the construction on someone's personal site. Scroll down for the photos, Bridge stats and links.

The National Library of Australia will flog you a Bridge construction photo.


(Embiggulate)

"Sydney Harbour shot taken from the air. Bridge in the center of the shot with the Opera house to the side. I took this photo myself during a helicopter joy flight. Rodney Haywood." (Wiki)


I'll be walking across the Coathanger this Sunday on its 75th birthday. I got in quick and got a place. The Bridge will be closed to traffic and thousands of Sydneysiders, a couple of Woy Woyans and assorted out-of-towners will be wandering across it. The water below will be chockers with boats and gawkers and the streets of Sydney will be likewise chockers. I'll post my photos of the walk on Monday.

The birthday walk

Official Bridge Walk site - history stuff with photos.

Road closures and public transport on the Walk day.

Bridge Walk Map.

brief rundown on the Sydney Morning Herald site. The registration mentioned in that article is closed. All the places for walking the Bridge are gone.

Interactive map of Darling Harbour

131500 - bus, train and ferry info for the Walk.


Speak up

Yep, you can put your Bridge story in the comments. The more the merrier.


Update, 17th of July 2008

Olive Riley, late of Woy Woy and formerly the world's oldest blogger, was there and walked the Bridge on its opening day in 1932. Read about it on All About Olive.