Sydney Harbour Bridge

[Bealman]

A mate of mine brought an interesting piece of memorabilia into the club last night which I thought I would share with members:
[smg id=5908 type=preview align=center width=400]
It's a steel rivet which were used extensively to build the Sydney Harbour Bridge. It was opened in 1932, and unused rivets were stamped to mark the occasion.

Built by Dorman Long & Co Ltd of Middlesborough, who also built the similar, but smaller  Tyne Bridge at Newcastle Upon Tyne, it carries road, rail, cycle and pedestrian traffic. Originally there were two railway lines on either side of the bridge, but the eastern railway line was given over to more traffic lanes and the bridge today only carries a twin track line on the western side.

The extensive use of the rivets can be seen in this view of a bridge climbing party. (My wife went on one such excursion but had to be brought down as she couldn't handle the height. I would not even to begin to think about such a jaunt, thank you very much).
[smg id=5909 type=preview align=center width=400 caption="Photo: Wikapedia"]

[ozzie Bill.]

Fancy a go at modelling it, rivet by rivet? Cheers, Bill.

[longbridge]

NIce bit of history George, 56 years in Oz and I never knew a British contractor built the coathanger.

I always kee well clear of it as a few years ago I made a wrong turn and finished up in the street where Central Station is at 5.15pm on a Friday afternoon.

To make matters worse I had a caravan on the car and finished up in a one way street with buses tooting and pedestrians looking at s as though we were mad.

FInished up parking near the water and stayed put till 9.30pm until I was game enough to move off and look for the turn off tp Maroubra where my ex wife had an auntie.

[trainsdownunder]

Climbing the bridge is one of the things on my "todo" list, but it's a pretty expensive walk (around £200 +). For those who don't do heights a visit to the bridge museum inside one of the concrete towers is well worth a visit though.

[Malc]

Slight correction, the bridge was built by the Cleveland Bridge Company of Darlington. My dad was a pattern maker who worked on the bridge project. However, Dorman Long of Dormanstown, nr Middlesborough, did provide the girders.

[Agrippa]

Climbing the bridge is one of the things on my "todo" list, but it's a pretty expensive walk (around £200 +). For those who don't do heights a visit to the bridge museum inside one of the concrete towers is well worth a visit though.

£200 to walk over a bridge?

[Bealman]

Agrippa: I agree - and if yer have a fear of heights, it's $200 well saved!

Malc: Only since 1990 when Dorman Long was acquired by CBC of Darlington.

[scotsoft]

For $200 I would expect an escalator to take me to the top 

cheers John.

[Bealman]

Send me $220 and I'll jump from the top (the other $20 is for the petrol it will cost me from Wollongong to Sydney - needn't bother about the $20 back) 

[Lankyman]

All I can say is I did the bridge climb last November and it was worth every penny. Although I almost got cold feet at the last minute, I do not regret it for one minute and would happily do it again.

Ron

[Bealman]

Well Ron, you've got more bottle than me mate, to be sure. Funny, though, I jumped off the top of a mountain in Queenstown NZ on a tandem paraglide 5 years ago, but in the time since I have developed a most definite fear of heights. Maybe subconsciously it is because I jumped of that mountain. Ah well, $200 saved, I guess.

But I'm glad you enjoyed the climb and likewise hope you enjoyed your visit to Oz generally.

Cheers, George.

[loco4401]

Just about every shift at work i go on the bridge deck in my 1:1 scale train and in the middle of the day its a little cheaper than on dusk or night climb. There is also the tour under the bridge deck where you see the inter workings and as for the museum its in the southern pillon just above the rocks area and i think it was about 20 dollars for an adult but you have a great view at the top but not as good as center point tower or what ever its called

[OwL]

NIce bit of history George, 56 years in Oz and I never knew a British contractor built the coathanger.

At one point In History British Engineers were building the worlds infrastructure, from Canals, Bridges, Railways and Roads. Nowaday's i dont think the British could manufacture plastic shopping bags!! Very Sad really......

[1936ace]

hi all, in my job we get to explore lots of cool spots and the Sydney harbour bridge is no exception. we get to go up in the pylons up and over the bridge in and under it. My wife wants to do the bridge climb but theres no way i'll pay A$200 when I can do it for nought
bart

[NeMo]

Like you, I regret the fact that Britain doesn't have factories cranking out wonderful pieces of heavy engineering. But it's important to put this in context, and not allow nostalgia to get in the way of perception.

Pretty much all countries lose their manufacturing industries once their economies reach a certain level of sophistication. Labour costs go up, and significantly, the "workers" prefer cleaner, safer jobs in service industries and retail. This parallels the decline of steam locomotives, which many of us rather like. Nice things to watch, horrible things to work around, and by the 50s it was very hard to recruit people to work with steam locomotives at the wages that could be (realistically) offered. Put another way, given the choice, for the same amount of money and hours, most people would sooner work in a supermarket than a cotton mill.

The UK does have substantial manufacturing though, particularly in fields like arms and non-glamourous technology (such as telecoms and aircraft electricals). Also, just because something is "service" it doesn't stop being engineering. A photocopier might be made in Japan, but someone has to service it. Ditto pretty much any electronic machine you can think of.

I do agree that UK schools don't do enough to train new generations of engineers, and this country is woefully short of the sorts of skilled engineers needed to maintain everything from laptops to railway signalling. Get enough engineers with enough experience and understanding of the market, and yes, the UK can build viable companies that manufacturer high-tech goods as well, so we could be exporting the hardware as well as servicing it. Probably like most people on this forum, I find it sad and ironic that most of the new rolling stock on Britain's railways was made abroad.

I suspect you and I would both agree that this country should do everything it can to create jobs where people are actually doing something rather than merely pushing bits of imaginary money around from one financial casino to another!

Cheers, NeMo

At one point In History British Engineers were building the worlds infrastructure, from Canals, Bridges, Railways and Roads. Nowaday's i dont think the British could manufacture plastic shopping bags!! Very Sad really......