March 19, 2007	Monday	Safar 29, 1428

SYDNEY: Thousands of Australians thronged the Sydney Harbour Bridge on Sunday to mark the 75th birthday of the iconic landmark which has come to represent the city to millions of people around the world.

An estimated 200,000 people are expected to walk the 503 metres across the bridge, which was the biggest of its kind in the world when it opened on March 19, 1932.

Celebrations began with an official reopening during which the governor of New South Wales Marie Bashir described the bridge as a Sydney legend.

“But most of all the bridge has given us a legend, a story, a source of global pride,” she said.

“It's the bridge of our dreams, purchased by the coins of our people which has paid us back a hundredfold in its strength and it's massive grace.

“The Sydney Harbour Bridge will never date, never grow old -- a structure of its time has become a structure for all times,” she said.-—AFP