How Sydney Harbour Bridge was built

Sydney Harbour Bridge is one of Australia's most famous landmarks, but how was it built? Deane and Rob use some simple models to give you the story. SUBSCRIBE NOW
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[@MileyonDisney]

That was interesting. I was in St. Louis, Missouri, United States, in the mid 1960's, when the St. Louis Arch (Jefferson National Expansion Memorial) was built. It's 630 feet tall, by 630 feet wide at the base. (Sorry, I don't know the metric equivalent.) When they were placing the final piece at top center, one leg of the arch had expanded a bit too much, so they hosed it down with water and got the piece to fit. I have home movies of it. The St. Louis Arch is a beautiful monument. There are elevators inside each leg, and you can go to the top and look out the windows. Cool stuff.

[@SaturnCanuck]

630 feet is about 192 metres. I never knew about the final section of the Arch. Very cool. Thanks.

[@The.Chiefman]

When the two halves of the bridge met they were out by only a few centimetres. That's great engineering back in the 30s. One of the 4 piers is open to the public. Another is now used as an exhaust stack for the harbour tunnel

[@mce_AU]

Shout out to all the bearings everywhere. Cheers.

[@TheKnobCalledTone.]

Maybe that's what they mean by "load bearing" lol

[@forrestberg591]

CHEERS

[@pastorofmuppets8834]

Wow North Sydney has changed soooooo much!

[@Maninawig]

What happens when the bearings need to be changed?

[@sambalsamurai9672]

Nice very interesting. I did not know the main principal construction method of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, until this episode. And as an architect now I know thanks to Curiosity Show! Awesome to show these timeless gems for the public. +1 I hope there is an episode about the Sydney Opera House too :) ;) Which if I have been informed correctly, has been built on a landfill !?

[@CuriosityShow]

Thanks for your kind comments. We thoroughly enjoy sharing our interest in science and technology with viewers young and old!. We have hundreds more ideas and activities. .Keep asking and Rob and I will keep feeding !! Cheers, Deane

[@marcinbukowski7423]

Wow, amazing 😊😯😊 I've learnt so much from that clip 💙😊

[@tendarb]

It certainly is an amazing structure. You can even feel it bounce with the weight of the traffic when you walk across it.

[@GiuseppeBasile]

I live in Sydney and love our bridge.

[@KilianKunz]

Still a great Video. Thanks for sharing

[@Cadcare]

Maunsell and Partners, 6th floor, Legal and General Building, 2 Dind Street Milsons's Point is now demolished but for the basement carpark (one of our secretaries crashed Mr. Crook's green Toyota station wagon into a column down in there) and replaced with high-rise apartments but I can tell you that many Australian, English (e.g. the A47 Norwich Bypass) and Hong Kong projects were designed and drawn by hand with ink and paper there because that's where I did my apprenticeship. Hint: it's the building with two vertical white stripes that rises behind Luna Park and of course I was mad about the Curiosity Show as a kid. Why else did I become an engineering draughtsman?!? :-) 1:31

[@CuriosityShow]

Thanks for that - I knew none of it - Rob

[@peter_castle]

Awesome story!

[@michaelkeller5008]

Question: how many takes (average) did these crafts-experiments (drawings, physics, scissor-cuttings aso) take?

[@CuriosityShow]

Usually only one after a talk-through and perhaps a few rehearsed camera angles. We didn't have much time - only 3-4 hours to produce each episode and we didn't have scripts - just ad-libbed our segments which each of prepared separately. Sometimes if something didn't work in the studio we could cut in a retake, but not so much on location - Rob

[@michaelkeller5008]

@@CuriosityShow ...impressive... Especially since I've worked for a local TV-station, too - and have seen how many times they had to redo the whole thing!

[@MaxDeXtreme]

@@CuriosityShow So how big was your location crew normally? It looks like you had 2 cameras on this one, plus sound would make 3 minimum.

[@CuriosityShow]

In both studio segments and location segments, the usual plan was to start with a detailed 'walk through' with particular emphases on close-ups . . . and then proceed straight to the recording. Recordings were usually done in one take. Together, Rob and I planned program themes weeks or months ahead. Each of us worked out segment details separately and then we woulld come together in the studio or on location to provide feedback and make suggestions. We tried to make our presentation styles as natural as possible. It seemed to work! There were many spirited discussions but no arguments. Cheers, Deane.

[@BLITZKRIEG1]

I'll check it out next time I'm in Kirribilli

[@SaturnCanuck]

That was amazing. Arches are strong indeed and the bearings is a great idea. I hear the harbour there is deep.

[@The.Chiefman]

About 20 meters underneath the bridge

[@bobo2422]

Engineering is beutiful.

[@wiwingmargahayu6831]

that is a lot of fish and chip Sir

[@TheKnobCalledTone.]

1:27 The Health and Safety police wouldn't let you get away with that these days, Deane.

[@petersrightbut8297]

Why spend xtra money on the stone facade? Nothing structural about it.

[@michaelkeller5008]

to make it look cool. ;)

[@robertbackhaus8911]

It would look pretty strange without it. The top of the truss structure curves up, to where the temporary cables were attached. Without the stone towers, that corner would just poke out into space.

[@smadaf]

People like beauty-a preference that way too many builders nowadays don't care enough about.