Sydney Harbour Bridge million, which was not paid off in full until 1988. The bridge was formally opened on Saturday, 19 March 1932. Amongst those who attended and gave speeches were the Governor of New South Wales, Sir Philip Game, and the Minister for Public Works, Lawrence Ennis. The Premier of New South Wales, Jack Lang, was to open the bridge by cutting a ribbon at its southern end. However, just as Lang was about to cut the ribbon, a man in military uniform rode up on a horse, slashing the ribbon with his sword and opening the Sydney Harbour Bridge in the
Bayonne Bridge the ribbon was sent to Australia for the ribbon-cutting of the Sydney Harbour Bridge four months later. After the ceremony in Sydney, the scissor blades were separated and one was sent back to the Port Authority. "Time" referred to the symmetric detail of the bridge as "impressive and haunting," while the commune of Bayonne in France sent a congratulatory telegram. When the Bayonne Bridge opened, it was the longest steel arch bridge in the world, barely surpassing its more massive-arched "sister bridge" in Australia—the Sydney Harbour Bridge—by and taking the distinction from the Hell Gate Bridge a few miles to