SYDNEY'S BRIDGE

Evening Post, Volume CXVII, Issue 72, 26 March 1934, Page 8

SYDNEY'S BRIDGE

SECOND ANNIVERSARY

IMMENSE TRAFFIC

(From "The Post's" Representative.) SYDNEY, March 22. Monday of this week was the second anniversary of the opening of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, that great structure which is. the pride of citizens and earns the admiration of all visitors. In its grandeur, it will for ever be an outstanding landmark^ —a tribute to the age in which it was built, to the designers, the contractors, and to Australian and British workmen. So far it has behaved exactly as was anticipated by those who planned it, and apparently it will continue to do so indefinitely. In the two years that have passed since the triumphal procession passed over it, not a fault has been found. It is, in short, a "perfect" job. ' There are those who claimed that the bridge was being eonstruete'd twenty years before its time as well as those whs said that it should have been built fifty years earlier.' It is a simple matter to prove to those who are in the former class, that they were wrong. So far the bridge has been crossed by 63,640,000. people, which is equal to the population of Germany. 6f these 26,000,000 have travelled by; train, 18,000,000 by tram, 16,000,000 by motorcars and other : road • vehicles, and 3,640,000 on foot. ;The vehicle traffic over the: bridge'is almost continuous, for 10,000 vehicleslpass over the bridge every day. Except for those who choose to walk over the bridge, there is a toll to be paid by everyone, and the revenue on this account is about" £.400,000 a year. Another £67,000 is paid each year on account of the bridge from the consolidated revenue, and a special tax, collected-by the various city and suburban councils from their ratepayers, yields about £96,000 a year.. Sydney at least realises by now that bridges can be very, costly. It is generally regretted that the tolls do not meet the expenditure, the latter being made up of interest and upkeep. The annual bill for upkeep is about £10,000, and as the bridg© is being kept in first-class condition this item is not likely to increase as the years roll by. . The deficit is a heavy drain on the consolidated revenue, and it is anticipated that another four years must elapse 'before the bridge is selfsupporting. "When the bridge was built it was not anticipated that tolls would be necessary, but the depression knocked the bottom out of the real estate market, and the sale of the residue of resumed land has not nearly come up to expectations. It is now 'suggested I that the toll will be dropped in fiftv- | two years! ," \. .' : Completion last month of the safety fence on the bridge ended an unhappy run of forty-six bridge suicides.