景点四  海港大桥(Sydney Harbour Bridge)

The Sydney Harbour Bridge is one of Australia’s most well-known and photographed landmarks. It is the world’s largest (but not the longest) steel arch bridge with the top of the bridge standing 134 metres above the harbour.

It was as early as 1815 that Francis Greenway suggested building a bridge from the northern to the southern shore of the harbour. It took some time for this to become a reality with design suggestions invited in 1900. All the suggestions were considered unsuitable and so the work for the bridge crossing stopped.

However, after the First World War more serious plans were made, with a general design for the Sydney Harbour Bridge prepared by Dr. J. J. C. Bradfield and officers of the NSW Department of Public Works. The New South Wales Government then invited worldwide tenders for the construction of the Bridge in 1922 and the contract was let to English firm Dorman Long and Co. of Middlesbrough.

The Sydney Harbour Bridge construction started in 1924 and took 1,400 men eight years to build at a cost of £4.2 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 changed to road traffic when Sydney closed down its tram system in the 1950s.

10. The construction was seriously considered after ______.

A. 1918                 B. 1915                 C. 1924                 D. 1922

11. The Sydney Harbour Bridge was completed in ______.

A. 1932                 B. 1924                 C. 1950                 D. 1815

12. It’s about ______ years from the first suggestion to build the bridge to its successful construction.

A. 110                          B. 112                   C. 117                   D. 120

(答案见本连载文章的最后一篇)

上一页  [1] [2] [3]