March 17, 2011

We started our last day in Sydney by crossing the harbor bridge on foot

Approaching the other side we arrived at one of the two concrete pylons. Iseline really wanted to see what it was like on the top, so we entered and climbed the stairs:

There is a museum on the inside telling the story about the bridge.

The idea of building a bridge was born early in the 1800s, and many suggestions were made during that century. It was not until 1912 that things got serious, when a certain J.J.C. Bradfield (His name was John Job Crew Bradfield, perfect middle names for someone planning such a gigantic project) was appointed “Chief Engineer of Sydney Harbour Bridge and Metropolitan Railway Construction.” It would take him 20 years to get the bridge in place.

After a world war had slowed the project down a bit, he travelled around the world in 1921 to study different large bridges and get inspiration. In 1924 the contract to build the bridge was given by the government to Dorman Long and Co Ltd. of Middlesbrough at a quoted price of 4 217 721 Australian Pounds, 11 shilling and 10 pence. Bradfield managed the building process and the construction took until 1932. During the first years of the depression the bridge was called the iron lung, since it was one of the few places where it was possible to get a job.

Around 469 buildings had to be demolished to make room for the bridge. Most of them were homes and the people living there were not given any compensation. Pretty unthinkable today, and something that speaks loudly about how society has changed.

Interestingly enough the concrete pylons of the bridge serve no other purpose than aesthetic ones. They made the bridge look nicer, so they were included, at immense cost. That also probably hadn’t been done today and tells a different story about how society has changed.

When the bridge was opened in 1932 the world was in a period of stark political contrasts. Fascism and communism were making inroads in many societies. In Australia a fascist paramilitry group called the New Guard was gaining traction and probably had more than 50 000 members in Sydney alone. This group made serious plans of staging a coup and putting New South Wales under martial law. Even the mayor of North Sydney at the time, Alderman Primrose, was a member of the New Guard.

One of New Guard´s prominent members, Francis de Groot, forever wrote himself into the history books on March 19, 1932, when he stole the opening of the Sydney Harbor Bridge. Just as the Premier, Jack Lang, was getting ready to cut the ribbon to officially open the bridge, Francis rode forward on his horse, cut the ribbon with his sword, and declared the bridge open “in the name of the decent and respectable people of New South Wales.”

He was promptly arrested and brought to a mental institution(!), but was soon released as the doctors found him sane. Charges were made, but it soon became a problem to figure out what he was arrested for. The New Guard had made sure that no laws had been broken.

He was first charged for carying a cutting weapon, but when he could prove that he was an officer in the millitary reserve and had the right to carry arms, that had to be dropped.

Then he was charged with offensive behavior, but that was only a crime on public land. Now, if an unopened bridge was considered private land, then he had committed no offense. If it was considered public property, and I love this one, then the bridge had to be considered part of the King´s highway. And by law, anyone then had the right to remove any obstacles, such as ribbons, blocking free passage on the highway. Francis´s lawyer must have had a field day.

In the end he was fined 5 pounds for trespassing. He sued the police back for wrongful arrest and 5000 pounds in compensation. An out-of-court settlement was reached and Francis got a 68 pound compensation and his confiscated ceremonial sword back.

Interestingly enough historians believe that Francis little show was such a symbolic blow to the establishment that it calmed the more radical elements of the New Guard and possibly stopped them from pressing for an immediate coup d’etat. It seems very remote today, but Australia was probably just an hour away from civil war between fascists and labor party supporters in May 1932.

The location of the sword was unknown for many years until, in 2004, historian Andrew Moore held a lecture in Dublin about Irish-Australian history, where he mentioned that the sword’s location was uknown. After the lecture a member of the audience came up to him and said “I think I can solve the mystery of the sword. I have it.” The man was Francis de Groot’s nephew. The sword was then snapped up by Paul Cave, the founder of the BridgeClimb company, for an undisclosed sum, right in front of the Australian National Museum (they had offered $10 000).

The company Paul Cave founded organizes climbs up to the top of the bridge. It is THE thing to do in Sydney and Helene and I did it when we were in Sydney almost 2 years ago. We could see people on the way up from the view point at the top of the pylon:

They were heading all the way up here:

Afterwards we walked through the district called “the Rocks” and stopped for some petits fours:

before we made our way into the central business district of Sydney.

By St. Mary’s cathedral there was a man making giant bubbles.

He even shared his recipe with us. Mix 1dl (3.4 fl. oz) of dishwashing liquid with 9dl (3.8 cups) of water. Add 1 tablespoon of glycerine and you are ready to go.

Cathedral without bubbles:

We continued walking and headed for the botanical gardens. We were getting tired by now, after about 5 km of city walking and needed some rest:

There were some great climbing trees:

Naïvely we didn’t even think that this might be a problem, until we spotted this sign on our way out of the gardens:

Oooops. Sorry.

Large bats were dangling from many of the treetops (are these OK, Gwen?)

We strolled down to the Opera and searched for new angles from which we could photograph this iconic building:

We took the ferry back home, full of impressions.

In the evening the boys and I took the ferry over to Darling Harbor. The bridge at night was an impressive sight:

I was in Sydney with Helene for just a couple of days almost 2 years ago. The new Star Trek movie was showing in the IMAX theater here, but there was just no way I could fit it into our schedule, since she was not interested in joining me. Awwwhhh.

This time, however, I made sure to include the IMAX theater. The only thing showing was the new TRON movie. Why not, at least it was sci-fi, and it was in 3D. The boys were thrilled to be able to go to the world’s largest IMAX theater:

For those of you who are ignorant non-geeks (ooops, sorry, I guess you are not supposed to insult your readers. Oh, what the heck, I’ll make an exception) I can explain that IMAX is a movie experience on a different level. The screen is more or less dome-shaped and the image is all around you. Coupled with out-of-this-world sound it is a movie freaks wet dream.

Eirik

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