The Bridge —
Episode Three Six Million Rivets

It would take eight years, 1400 labourers, as many as 6 million hand-driven rivets connecting roughly 52,800 tonnes steel beams, and 272,000 litres of paint.

Loans used to finance the construction would take the city 55 years to pay off. In the end, the total cost of the Bridge reached over £6.25 million, or more than $500 million today—as well as sixteen workers’ lives.

Once completed, it would stand as the largest single-arch bridge in the world.

At 3 pm on the 28 July 1923, construction of the Bridge on the Harbour’s North Shore commenced. The Honourable Richard Thomas Ball, M.L.A., Minister for Public Works and Railways, sank a shovel into the dirt outside the North Sydney railway station to mark the occasion. Amidst loud cheers, the sod-turning was announced by the Mayor of North Sydney, G.T. Clarke, who said: 

Bradfield’s initial plans for the Sydney Harbour Bridge were only one part of a unified vision he had for the city: the complete modernisation of Sydney’s transport system.

This system would include an electrified suburban railway, spanning above and below ground to service the one million residents of the now-sprawling city.

Its huge proportions would make it much more difficult to build than any other competing design—its span would be over a kilometre in length. However, Bradfield was sure that the solid rock of the Harbour’s foreshores could more than withstand the weight of the giant structure:

However, a consulting engineer with Dorman Long & Co. named Ralph Freeman also claimed credit for the design, having been responsible for the Bridge’s final plans under the contract with the government. In 1929, Freeman was quoted in the Sydney Morning Herald as saying that Bradfield:

And that Bradfield had contributed…

Some say a bitter rivalry broke out between Bradfield and Freeman; historians now say this was more an argument about the meaning of the word ‘design’, concluding that the final bridge was based on Bradfield’s initial plans but executed by Freeman in the final construction.

Dorman Long & Co.’s successful tender had specified that all the materials and, most importantly, labour for the project would be locally sourced. The granite for the decorative pylons would come from Moruya; the sand from the Nepean river; and the cement from Kandos. Ultimately, however, the majority of the steel would come imported from England, with just 20% locally fabricated at steelworks in Newcastle.

As the structure took its shape, hundreds of people gathered daily to bear witness to the herculean task being undertaken in their city. 

Robert Emerson Curtis wrote of the heady excitement of the scenes in his book, Building the Bridge: 

However, the Bridge was never simply an arch across the water. For the bridge to function, far-reaching development was needed—and it would reshape North Sydney. The ferry arcade at Milsons Point, where thousands of commuters had converged for the day’s travel, was demolished and its ferries shifted. Tram lines were rerouted. A new highway was introduced, linking the bridge to Lane Cove through the heart of Milsons Point. 

In Lavender Bay, Reverend Cash, Rector of Christ Church, documented the upheaval in some 3000 photographs. In his book, Parables of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, he writes that amid the removal of families:

500 homes were destroyed and 400 families displaced with no compensation. Only landowners were deemed worthy of monetary benefits; leaseholders and casual renters were left to fend for themselves.

Letters from the Ministry unceremoniously delivered the news of impending homelessness to bewildered residents and shop owners: 

Though the construction of the Bridge brought displacement and hardship to no small number of residents of Sydney, the devastation of the Depression years would also find major relief for others in the city with the building of the Bridge.  

In 1932, national unemployment hit an all-time high of 30%, but Sydney recorded just 10%, buoyed by the construction of the Bridge.

The Bridge became known as the ‘iron lung’ for its massive injection into the economy.  

The government favoured giving this work to war veterans, union members, and men with families. Working week hours on the Bridge were cut from 44 to 33 hours, in order to give jobs to more people overall. Workers came from diverse backgrounds: English engineers, Scottish and Italian stonemasons, American, British and European riggers and Irish and English boilermakers and machinists.

Gainful employment on the Bridge, however, could come at great cost for some labourers. The work was physically gruelling and incredibly dangerous; accidents were unavoidable. Sixteen men were killed in accidents on the Bridge and in its attendant worksites.

Born in 1909, Reg was raised in Moruya. He was encouraged to take the apprenticeship on the advice of his father, whose life had consisted of unskilled, arduous work. He was only 19 years old when he began his apprenticeship.

Standing on the Bridge, hundreds of feet in the air and secured only by rope, workers would catch the newly forged, metal rivets and bolts in buckets of water and hammer them into their beams. They could only hope to avoid being struck by the scalding-hot bolts, or miss catching one to have it fall onto someone else working below—possibly fatally. 

Vera Holliday worked in the Sydney Harbour Bridge Dawes Point office of Dorman Long & Co. as a comptometer operator. She vividly recalls the rivet workers: 

Many of the fatalities on the construction were the result of monstrous injuries, such as those recalled by worker Bob Colefax: 

Jack McCrae was a concrete packer during the building of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. He recalls the death of Tom McKeon:  

The concrete pylons rose first on either side of the Harbour, each fronted with granite quarried from Moruya, a town 305 km  to the south of Sydney.

It would take two years for the arches to touch in the middle, forming a structure that would come to weigh 39,000 tonnes. The engineers had been fraught with anxiety; whether such an architectural feat would succeed would only be known once it had been attempted.

The arch now supported itself and the giant cables could be removed. It was a historic day, commemorated by the raising of the British and Australian flags on both sides of the Bridge. 

Once the arch has been completed, the rest of the Bridge was built with speed.

By June 1931, the deck running its length was in place and topped with asphalt. Rails were placed for trams and trains. In January 1932, the final piece of granite was laid on the northwest pylon. 

More than able to withstand these stress tests, the Sydney Harbour Bridge was declared safe for traffic. 

On 19 March 1932, after decades of acrimony, upheaval and incredible construction feats, the Sydney Harbour Bridge would finally be opened to the public. The opening itself was grand, beginning and ending with fireworks specially prepared for the occasion. That day, however, the festivities were interrupted by an additional, unexpected display that was equally explosive.

In Episode Four we relive the opening spectacle, an arrest and a city’s celebrations.