bradfield

Fascinating! I had fun finding out exactly where this was - several levels down in Wynyard station looking north east up York Street. The only(?) constant is the wrapped statue of John Dunmore Lang (see note) - streetview goo.gl/maps/qArK5PK9UwXSgPsYA

Thanks, I have added it to the map. I also liked all the compressed air hoses for the jack hammers draped around the rocks.

Museums of History NSW - State Archives Collection He looks rightfully proud of his creation!

He looks proud as punch.

[http://www.flickr.com/photos/61271636@N05]] ... and so he should be!

Photoshop out the bridge and add Lárc de triumph and he could have been liberating Paris? Add some train tracks too of course...

Highranger Sounds like a good Sunday afternoon editing project ;-D AB

Four days before opening.

You're right, BobMeade, thanks for adding that note. On looking at a larger version it is JJC Bradfield.

Good spotting BobMeade! That immediately makes the picture more interesting, to see the engineer almost alone on his bridge and highway.

This photograph comes from the "Sydney Harbour Bridge Photographic Albums" (State Records series no. 12685 ) which came to State Records from the Bradfield family in 1968. Bradfield appears in many of the photos from that album in front of construction he had initiated or designed. He had much of which to be proud.

This photograph also appears on facing page 110 of the book Heart of The Rocks of Old Sydney by Isadore Brodsky (1965, Old Sydney Free Press, Neutral Bay) There it bears the caption: "A big man and a big bridge. The picture was taken four days before the official opening of the bridge on March 19 1932. Dr Bradfield emerges as a significant figure." [ Trove identifier for the book : trove.nla.gov.au/work/21306689 ]