Bridges of Inspiration

In blog posts past I've shown various New York City bridges, most notably, the Queensborough bridge. In this post, I thought I'd take the bridge theme to a different level.

This is the Sydney Harbour Bridge in Sydney, NSW, Australia, one of the most recognizable bridges in the world. Officially opened on March 19, 1932 it was the crowning achievement of Chief Engineer John Bradfield who had been heading up the project to bridge the harbour since 1912.

What is lesser known is the source of inspiration for this major work. During his travels, Bradfield spent some time in New York City and apparently a light went on when he saw the Hell Gate Bridge, a single-arch railroad bridge connecting Queens with Manhattan, the Bronx and points north.

The Hell Gate Bridge, opened in 1916 and is considerably more narrower and shorter than the Sydney Harbour Bridge, but given the time he had to work on the project (lengthened as the plans halted for World War I), Bradfield was able to improve on the design.

The point of this is that a railroad bridge in Queens became the inspiration for something greater in another place. As I've said in this blog before, Gospel work here tends to have international repercussions. My hope is that this simple guy from Queens can be used for bigger things as God directs. That's all I'm saying.