FREEMAN, SIR RALPH

born Nov. 27, 1880, London died March 11, 1950, London English civil engineer whose Sydney Harbour Bridge (1932), New South Wales, with a main arch span of 1,650 feet (500 m), is one of the longest steel-arch bridges in the world. In 1901 Freeman joined a London firm of consulting engineers, later known as Freeman, Fox & Partners. His works include the Victoria Falls Bridge over the Zambezi River, on the border of present-day Zimbabwe and Zambia; the Royal Naval Propellant factory built during World War II; the Furness shipbuilding yard in Lancashire; and five major bridges in southern Africa. He also prepared designs for the bridge over Auckland Harbour, New Zealand. From 1928 to 1936 he was a member of the Steel Structures Research Committee, a British organization, and chairman of the panel responsible for effecting the committee's designs. He was knighted in 1947.