Many cross Sydney Harbour Bridge for 75th party

Sydney, Mar 18: Thousands of people wearing celebratory hats and waving Australian flags walked across Sydney Harbour Bridge today to celebrate the ''Coathanger's'' 75th birthday.

The last time the bridge closed for a public walk in 2000, about a quarter of a million people crossed in support of aboriginal reconciliation.

The aboriginal community again played a leading role today when a didgeridoo player in traditional dress mounted the bridge's northern gantry to herald the start of the day's diamond jubilee celebrations.

Among the first wave of the good-natured crowd to cross the Coathanger, as locals fondly call the bridge, were De Hampel and Sue Griffiths, two friends from Shellharbour, about 100 kilometres south of Sydney, whose parents were children when the bridge opened.

''It's the biggest party I've ever been to and I'm not one to miss many,'' said De Hampel, 61, sporting a silver sash proclaiming ''Happy Birthday'' and a tiara with 75 written on it.

''The bridge is part of our life, it's Sydney. I can't imagine the city without it.'' Another walker was Bruce Boddington from Bathurst, about 200 kms west of Sydney, who, as a four-year-old, was the youngest person to walk across the bridge at the 1932 opening.

''It's wonderful, seeing the crowd,'' grinned Boddington, now 79, as he prepared to cross. ''They've all got happy looks on their faces.'' Organisers were expecting 200,000 walkers, many of them sporting bright green commemorative baseball caps, to cross the bridge's 500-metre-span during the day, serenaded by loudspeakers playing archive recordings of events that have impacted Australia throughout the bridge's history, from World War 2 to the Bali bombings of 2002.

Waltzing Mayilda

There were more light-hearted memories too, including a recording of the 1948 international retirement of Australian cricketing legend Donald Bradman, while a medley of songs from ''Waltzing Matilda'' to modern Australian pop kept the Sunday strollers' feet moving.

Beneath them, Sydney Harbour filled with a flotilla of boats, including Berrima, a 1940s workboat, two tugs from the 1960s, and rowing boats used by Sydney's lifesavers on the city's beaches. Formal ceremonies passed with little mishap unlike on March 19, 1932, when a maverick former cavalry officer named Francis de Groot pushed in front of the official opening party to cut the ribbon with his sword.

The ribbon was swiftly retied, de Groot temporarily detained, and around a million people lined Sydney's harbour to enjoy the opening celebrations.

During the preceding 8 years, about 1,500 workers had worked on the bridge's construction, between them hauling more than 50,000 tonnes of steel into place, all held together by six million hand-driven rivets imported from northern England.

Australian engineer John Bradfield oversaw the project, but tension has simmered for three-quarters of a century over whether he was responsible for the detailed design or Ralph Freeman, a consulting engineer retained by Dorman Long, the British engineering firm that built the bridge.

The debate over who really designed the bridge continues between Australia and Britain. The official opening plaque mentions both men.

Living Brigade

Although the bridge is firmly fixed in the world's eye for hosting Sydney's annual New Year's Eve celebrations or the dazzling fireworks display that closed the 2000 Olympics, it is an integral part of the city's day-to-day life.

Around 200,000 cars cross in 8 lines of traffic every day and two busy train lines carry office workers into the city from Sydney's northern suburbs, flanked on either side by a foot and and cycle path.

This heavy usage, as well as Australia's fierce sun, means maintenance is a big job, including regular repainting of about 485,000 square metres of steelwork -- the equivalent in area to 60 football fields.

Among the workers who have given the bridge a lick of paint over the years is ''Crocodile Dundee'' Paul Hogan, who worked on the bridge before hitting fame as a TV comic in the 1970s.

Reuters