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Dr JJC Bradfield on 'king pin' under the arch at the Sydney Harbour Bridge February 1931

By
Harold Cazneaux
By kind permission of the
Cazneaux family
National Library of Australia
[nla.pic-vn3696029]

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Building the Sydney Harbour Bridge Built environment Economy
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Bridges Civil engineering
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Bradfield, JJC
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Sydney Harbour Bridge

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Cazneaux, Harold

Cazneaux family

National Library of Australia

Built environment

Built over tracks, campsites, rock art and middens used for thousands of years before the dispossession of the Aboriginal people, Sydney's early haphazard development was given form by public buildings. As public transport developed, suburbs spread, and throughout the twentieth century, town planners struggled with developers to direct the form and extent of the city. After World War II, city buildings got taller, outer suburbs sprang up ever further away, and issues of heritage and architecture were contested. In the twenty-first century, concerns about environment, urban density, public transport and renewed infrastructure are driving change.

Economy

With the arrival of Europeans, the traditional economy of Aboriginal clans was disrupted, and gave way to the convict economy of the Commissariat and government stores. But this closed economy was soon opened by free settlement, whaling and sealing, shipping and farming success, making Sydney the port for a vast hinterland. Depressions and booms alternated, bringing poverty and prosperity to the city. Sydney's growth and diversity mean that regional economies now exist within the Sydney region.

Building the Sydney Harbour Bridge

When the Sydney Harbour Bridge opened in 1932 it was the epitome of modern bridge design and engineering ingenuity. The iconic design was the creation of Dr JCC Bradfield, of the New South Wales Department of Public Works, Ralph Freeman, consulting engineer for the builders, Dorman, Long and Co, and thousands of workers who toiled on it through the Great Depression.

Bridges

Civil engineering

Bradfield, JJC

Engineer and planner who designed and oversaw the building of the Harbour Bridge, underground railway and other Sydney infrastructure.

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Sydney Harbour Bridge

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Steel through arch bridge from Sydney business district to the North Shore, constructed between 1923 and 1932.