Sydney Harbour Bridge at 75

The Bridge is 75 years old on Monday 19th March 2007. The Sydney Harbour Bridge was ?unofficially? opened by Captain Francis De Groot of the 'political' (nowadays they would have been considered 'terrorist') group ?The New Guard?, on 19 March 1932. A few minutes after De Groot slashed the ribbon with his sword, the official opening was by NSW premier Jack Lang. The bridge cost 6,250,000 pounds to construct and resumption of land, interest and other costs added a further 3,516,124 pounds to make a total of 9,766,124 pounds. Inflated to today at CPI index this cost would be $625 million.

The one-way toll on the Sydney Harbour Bridge(SHB) for cars started at sixpence ($0.05) each way and last increased to $3.00 (one way) on 14 January 2002, an average increase of 5.0%pa which was very close to the CPI increase of 5.1% pa over the same period.

The Golden Gate Bridge(GGB) in San Francisco opened on 23 May 1937, five years later than SHB. The car toll on GGB started at US$0.50 each way and today is US$5 one way. The average compound rate of increase for a two-way round trip has been 2.3% pa. Over the same period US CPI inflation has been 3.8%pa.

For more info on the SHB and GGB try the following sites:

Sydney Harbour Bridge: http://www.sydneyharbourbridge.info/

Golden Gate: http://www.sfmuseum.org/hist9/mcgloin.html

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