Sydney Harbour Bridge

Figured I should do a post on the history of the Sydney Harbour Bridge since I see it every day. It is pretty darn amazing in and of itself.  

Looking at bridge from the northwest

So it started in 1815 when Francis Greenway proposed building a bridge from Dawes Point to the norther shore of Port Jackson to Governor Macquarie. Nothing really happened until after the end of World War II.  Engineer Sir Ralph Freeman carried out the design of the bridge.  The design is similar to New York's Hell Gate Bridge.  

July 28, 1923, the work started on the bridge. The construction of the bridge approaches and the approaches spans began.  But first, 800 families that were living in the path were displaced and without any compensation.  

Foundations on either side of the harbor were prepared to take four steel thrust bearings.  The foundations are 12 m (39 ft) deep and are set in sandstone.  The anchoring tunnels are 36 m (118 ft) long and dug into the bedrock at each end.  Large nuts and bolts were used to tie the thrust bearings into their supports.  

The four pylons are actually mainly placed for aesthetic reasons and because people didn't trust the bridge safety.  They are on each corner of the bridge.  The pylons are about ~90m above the average water level and are made of concrete that is covered by grey granite.

Construction of the arch began from both sides of the harbor with cable support for the arches. The arches met August 19, 1930.  Construction of the deck started in the middle and worked outwards towards each shore so they wouldn't have to move the equipment again.  

The bridge was manufactured in sections on a site on the western side of Milson's Point.  80% of the steel came from England and the remaining 20% was manufactured in Australia.  

In 1932, the bridge was test loaded.  They brought 96 steam locomotives that were placed end to end.  After 3 weeks of tests, the bridge was declared to be safe for traffic. So on March 19, 1932, the bridge was opened for the public.  It is the world's largest steel bridge, but not the longest.

Images of how bridge was constructed 

• Length of the arch span=503 m (1650 ft)
• Height of the top arch=134 m above mean sea level
• Weight of the arch=39,000 tons
• There are 28 panels in the arch
• Total length of the bridge=1149 m including approach spans.
• 52,000 tons of silicon based trusses
• 6 million steel rivets used to hold together plates of steel and they were all hand driven in
• 1400 men built bridge and 16 lives were lost.  
• Top of arch rises and falls about 18 cm dues to changes in temperature
• 1 coat of paint=30,000 liters

The original cost of the bridge was several million Australian pounds.  The debt was eventually paid off in 1988.  The toll is used for maintenance. The initial toll for a car was 6 pence.  For a horse and rider, it was 3 pence. Today the toll is $3.30 and only charged when traveling to the South as an efficiency measure to speed up traffic flow.  Today there are 8 traffic lanes, 2 railroad lines, a pedestrian pathway and a cycleway.  There are 100 men/women that work on maintaining the bridge each day.  

Lots of steel and rivets.  It's pretty loud under here when a train is going over the bridge

In 1988, construction began for the Sydney Harbor Tunnel in order to help alleviate the amount of traffic on the bridge.  The tunnel was eight precast concrete in 120 m sections, then towed by barge and sunk into there final positions.  Each section weighs 23,000 tons.  At the lowest point, the tunnel is 27 m below mean sea level.  The tunnel cost $554.25 million Australian dollars.  It also has a toll that varies from A$2.50-4.00 depending on the time of day and is only for Southbound lanes as well. The tunnel has two lanes going in each direction.  It was completed August 30th, 1992.

So where we live, we can see the entrance of the tunnel when we cross a bridge over the freeway into North Sydney and then we can see the Harbor bridge arches in the distance.  It is a pretty amazing feat to have these two things.  Even with both means of getting across the harbor, traffic can still be backed up.  They actually approved another twin tunnel railway to help with the jam-packed train network.

Hope you enjoyed!

xoxo,
Ann and Aram

Vivid Sydney

So some of you readers may have heard that we have been going to Vivid Sydney. Here is a description of this from the Vivid Sydney website.

"Vivid Sydney is a 23-day festival of light, music and ideas. Vivid Sydney features many of the world's most important creative industry forums, a mesmerising free public exhibition of outdoor lighting sculptures and installations and a cutting-edge contemporary music program.

Vivid Sydney is where art, technology and commerce intersect."

"Vivid Sydney, now in its ninth year, is Australia's major event in winter and is recognised as the largest event of its kind in the world combining light, music and ideas. Vivid Sydney is owned, managed and produced by Destination NSW, the NSW Government’s tourism and major events agency.

Vivid Sydney is where art, technology and commerce intersect.  The program features large scale light installations and projections (Vivid Light); music performances and collaborations (Vivid Music including Vivid LIVE at the Sydney Opera House); and creative ideas, discussion and debate (Vivid Ideas). All three celebrate Sydney as a creative hub of the Asia-Pacific.

Vivid Sydney was recently recognised by the International Festivals & Events Association (IFEA) and received 12 accolades at the 2016 IFEA Pinnacle Awards, winning Gold in the Grand Pinnacle Category. Vivid Sydney was also voted Australia’s Best Event in 2013 and Best Tourism Event in 2013, 2014 and 2015.

Here is a link of more on the light, music and ideas aspect. https://www.vividsydney.com/about-vivid-sydney

 Needless to say this is a pretty big deal.  Here are a bunch of photos from Vivid Sydney 2017.  We took the ferry over and they slow down and stop for a brief amount of time by the Opera House and the Bridge to take photos.  Pretty darn cool.  

Interactive Hopscotch

So you wore these headphones and were able to listen to 3 different types of music
and look and video at the screens below.

Aram went to the end to get his face in the photo...other people were laughing.

Exhibit called "Bird Dip" and it dipped into a water pond...See Kristine!!!

Reflection in water

So you can see this is pretty amazing.  Sorry for some of the blurry pictures.  Still working on the night photos with my new camera.  Vivid Sydney ends on Saturday and Aram and I both said it's going to be weird seeing the Bridge and the Opera House just normally lit up.  We really like the interactive designs and colors.

Hope all is well!  Miss everyone!

xoxo, Ann & Aram