William Jolly Bridge showing the official final cost as £688,387/12/5. The Grey Street Bridge opened on 30 March 1932The bridge was officially opened to traffic on 30 March 1932 by Sir John Goodwin, the Governor of Queensland, just eleven days after the opening of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. A large crowd gathered on both sides of the river and 600 invited guests were in attendance. There was great community interest in the massive public works under construction at the time. It was the era of the Great Depression and massive public works, and Vida Lahey, a distinguished Queensland artist, painted the bridge at
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