SYDNEY HARBOUR BRIDGE CONSTRUCTION (Time-Lapse) At 10pm on August 19, 1930, the two halves of the Sydney Harbour Bridge arch were joined for the first time — five years after construction started. The joining of the arches was a culmination of a 10-day effort in which "the two sections were gradually lowered by the releasing of the huge cables until the pilot pins on the south arm fitted into the sockets on the north side" — a process complicated by temperature changes. After that, it took only