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| *Travel Tips>>>Sydney Travel Tips |
What are your top ten interesting facts about the Sydney Harbour Bridge? |
Travel Info Please list your sources! Thanks! Happy 75th! Travel Tips Here's a couple... * The Sydney Harbour Bridge wasn't paid for until 1988, almost 60 years after it was opened. The original toll was sixpence and the toll remains because of the cost of bridge maintainence. * They had to paint it GREY because there was no other colour of paint available in such quantities. it took 272 thousand litres of paint to get the first coat on. * It is the LARGEST but not the LONGEST *It took six years to build! Construction started in 1924 and the bridge was opened in 1932 *The two eastern lanes were tram tracks until the 1950s *800 families living in the 'path' of the bridge had their homes demolished and got no compensation! That certainly wouldn't happen today. *The top of the arch rises and falls when the temperature changes, up to 180 mm. The birdge has hinges to accomodate this. * Originally average daily traffic was 11 thousand cars a day. Now more than 160 thousand! *Premier Jack Lang was supposed to cut the ribbon to open the Bridge, but a man named Captain Francis De Groot from the para-military group the New Guard rode up on his horse and did it instead with a sword! *The bridge is 49 metres wide - the widest single span bridge in the world. Source(s): http://www.sydneyharbourbridge.info/... http://www.genesis.net.au/~ejs/sydney/... http://www.bridgeclimb.com/thebridge/faq... Other Travel Tips Here are some great ones - - The bridge wasn't paid off until 1988 - it cost 10 million pounds sterling (20 million dollars) to build. The Bridge is painted grey because it was the only paint they had enough of at the time! - The area it takes to paint it is the size of 60 sports fields. - It is only the second longest single arch bridge in the world - the Bayonne Bridge in the US is 70 cms longer - It takes 1439 steps to climb the bridge - The pylons are only decoration! They don't really hold it up - There are no nuts and bolts, only rivets, and six million of them - the largest one weighs 3.5 kilos - The arch itself weighs 39 thousand tonnes! - Actor Paul Hogan used to be a painter on the Bridge - The top of the arch is 134 metres above sea level http://www.australiantraveller.com.au/in... http://www.clickforaustralia.com/nsw_syd... http://bridgepros.com/projects/sydneyhar... 1. After 75 years a toll is still charged by our rip off government. 2. 6 million rivets. 3. I have climbed to the top of it. 4. It's clogged with traffic. 5. They continue to paint it however th road surface is crap. 6. It's clogged with traffic. 7. Mark Webber drove a F1 car on it. 8. It's clogged with traffic. 9. On the offical opening, some random person on a horse cut the tie. 10. It's clogged with traffic. |
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