Building the Sydney Harbour Bridge

On 28 July 1923 construction began on the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

Construction began on 28 July 1923. The contractors set up two workshops at Milson's Point on the North Shore where the steel was fabricated into girders. The granite for the pylons was quarried near Moruya, where about 250 workers and their families lived in a temporary settlement. The two arches met at the centre of the span on 19 August 1930 at 10pm. The two half arches were fabricated from steel in workshops before being loaded onto barges and towed into position. The arches were then lifted up by two 580 tonne electrically operated creeper cranes. The arch spans 503m and the summit is 134m above sea level. Steel decking was then hung from the arches over the next nine months.

Premier Jack Lang opened the Harbour Bridge on the 19 March, 1932.

These images are from NRS-12685 - Sydney Harbour Bridge Photographic Albums

The purpose of this series was to document in photographic form the construction of the Sydney Harbour Bridge from the turning of the first sod and the initial acts of construction to the official opening and early use of the bridge.

The series consists of black and white photographs which were developed from glass negatives and pasted into large albums. One volume is devoted to the southern approach, two to the northern approach and 11 to the main Bridge. Each photograph is captioned and almost all are precisely dated with the caption if the date is not incorporated into the image.

Browse the complete series Sydney Harbour Bridge photographic albums (NRS 12685)

Source: Transport Roads and Waterways: Transport NSW. A short history of the Sydney Harbour Bridge