Sydney Harbour

Sydney Harbour
Sydney Harbour is the most beautiful natural harbour in the world. There are infinite opportunities to walk, eat and relax throughout the harbour; along the waterfront and amidst the many parks and reserves along the way. The best way of seeing the harbour is to be on it and that’s easy to do. Sydney Ferries, which are also government run, provide an inexpensive way of seeing the most beautiful harbour in the world.
The Sydney Harbour Bridge constructed in 1924 which took 1500 men eight years to build at a cost of £4.25 million. Six million hand driven rivets and 53,000 tonnes of steel were used in its construction. It now carries eight traffic lanes and two rail lines, one in each direction, but at the time of its construction the two eastern lanes were tram tracks. They were converted to road traffic when Sydney closed down its tram system in the 1950s. Before it opened, its entire length was packed with railway carriages, trams and buses to test its ability to support a total traffic jam. It was designed to withstand winds of 200 kilometres and hour, which are cyclonic (hurricane) in force and have never been recorded in Sydney.
The Sydney Harbour Tunnel is also a well known attraction of the Harbour. It was built to cope with ever increasing harbour traffic problems and opened in August 1992 . It is 2.3 kilometres long and cost A$554 million to construct. It is strong enough to withstand the impact of eathquakes and sinking ships. It carries around 75,000 vehicles a day.