Life Before the Sydney Harbour Bridge

From the canoes of the Eora people to the engineering marvel of the Sydney Harbour Bridge - this is the story of how Sydney learned to cross its harbour.

By Matt Murphy 

The Sydney Harbour Bridge is approaching 100 years of age. Along with the Opera House, it is synonymous with Sydney and in fact it is hard to imagine Sydney without it. More than a landmark, it is an important part of Sydney’s infrastructure; about 160,000 cars, trucks and buses, as well as 500 trains, traverse the bridge every day. 

Prior to 1788, the Eora people of Sydney had been crossing the harbour in their large canoes. Known as nawi, they were four metres long and wide enough that a fire was kept alight in the centre with enough room either side for people to walk around.

Not long after Sydney was colonised, the concept of a bridge linking to north of the harbour was discussed. The first of these was from a visitor when Sydney was only a year old. Erasmus Darwin, grandfather of the famous naturalist Charles Darwin, visited in 1789 and wrote a poem in which he extolled the beauty of the harbour and that he envisioned a ‘proud arch, Colossus-like’ that would link the harbour’s north and south. 

An emancipist named Billy Blue, after whom Blues Point was named, saw an opportunity  in 1807 and started a ferry service. For a fee you were given access to his boat but you were also given an oar. Blue steered the vessel while the passengers rowed. By 1817 his fleet had grown to 11 vessels.

In 1814 Francis Greenaway, an architect and convict who designed much of colonial Sydney, proposed to Governor Macquarie that a bridge be built to the north shore, but nothing came of it. A decade later Greenway again pushed for a bridge across the harbour noting not only the practicality and need for such a structure but that it would ‘give an idea of strength and magnificence that would reflect credit and glory on the colony and the Mother Country’. With Sydney growing,  proposals were put to the colonial New South Wales government in 1857,1878 and 1881; one of which suggesting a tunnel instead of a bridge. The 1881 model was formally accepted by the government, and while that caused some excitement it never left the drawing board. In 1890 a Royal Commission was established however as a depression hit Sydney shortly after, the idea again failed to gain momentum.

From the early 1860s, while all the talk of a bridge was being debated, steam powered ferries became popular yet couldn’t keep up with Sydney’s growing population. By 1900 both the ferries were overcrowded with people and the wharves overcrowded with ferries. On many occasions passengers were forced to alight from their ferry to another ferry and to a third or fourth before setting foot on the wharf.  The need for a bridge was becoming increasingly dire.

The first crossing of the harbour was to be further west. The original Gladesville Bridge was built in 1881. It provided only one lane of traffic each way, and a tram line. Being much lower than the current Gladesville Bridge, the southern half swung open to allow ships to access the Parramatta River.  The old bridge was closed, and the current Gladesville Bridge was opened slightly to its east, in 1964.

In 1900 the New South Wales government held a competition to design a bridge and in 1902 granted prizes of £1000 to a London based entry of a suspension bridge and £500 to a Sydney-based engineer, Norman Selfe, for his design of a cantilever bridge. Selfe was also awarded a second time for a suspension bridge he later designed. But yet again the bridge idea was scrapped, and again primarily for financial reasons.

In 1914 John Bradfield was appointed the chief engineer for the Sydney Harbour Bridge project and like Selfe favoured a cantilever construction. This time a bill was passed by the government however like all previous proposals it failed to get started. This time it was not just because of money, but because of WWI. This was not only because much of Sydney’s manpower were involved in the war effort but also because the nation was also more focussed on the fight in Europe, especially after the slaughter and Gallipoli.  However after the war, and with the state’s finances in good shape, the planning minds of Sydney were more focused and more determined.

Another international competition commenced in 1922. The winning tender being the English firm Dorman, Long and Co who had built the Tyne Bridge in Newcastle which was of much the same design and, at the time, nearing completion. The major difference is that the Sydney Harbour Bridge was to be almost three times larger at 1150 metres in length.

The ceremonial start of the construction of the Sydney Harbour Bridge was on 28 July 1823 but this was mainly on the approaches to the bridge, not the structure itself. The concrete peers that would support the bridge were in place by September 1926 with work on the famous arch commencing in late 1928. The two halves touched in the middle on 19 August 1930 which understandably caused much jubilation for Sydneysiders and undoubtedly some satisfaction for the engineers.

The bridge was completed in early 1932 but before it was open to the public three weeks of tests were conducted to ascertain its strength. The most famous of these tests being when 96 steam trains were placed end-to-end on the tracks. 

The bridge was officially opened on 19 March 1932 as a public event and celebration. It is curious that the reason the bridge was not built earlier was often blamed on economic restraints and yet it was completed during the Great Depression. 16 workers died during its construction.

You can contact our resident historian, Matt Murphy, via Instagram: @mattmurphy8