Sydney Harbour Bridge and Environs

Thursday morning I met up with my friend Kiwi Nomad who had flown in from London. After a nice breakfast at the main Sydney ferry port Circular Quay I decided to wander around. The weather was much nicer than on Tuesday so the day was ripe for sightseeing.

Here's a shot of downtown taken from the eastern side of the harbor.


The Sydney Harbour Bridge is just as iconic as the Opera House in terms of Sydney landmarks. It towers over the port area and is an impressive and imposing structure. Imagine what New York would look like if the George Washington Bridge had been placed where the Lincoln or Holland Tunnels are and you get a sense of the scale. It was built in 1932.
By the way, there's an outfit called BridgeClimb which organizes climbs up to the top of the bridge. Note them at the top by the flags.


I can't say that it's something I seriously considered doing but if you need to test your nerve that's as good a way as any.

The Sydney Opera House sits at the end of the northeastern side of the harbor and it is an impressive building indeed.


The shape is striking and recognizable. Despite having a bit of the late 60s / early 70s design ethos it does not look dated.


It still looks quite modern and futuristic.

The detailing on the roof panels is exquisite, and it captures the light beautifully.


I wonder how many additional billions of dollars of tourism money it has brought in, even though only a fraction of visitors actually go inside to see an opera. That present value of the building must be enormous.

Here's a shot of the CBD as seen from the opera house.

I then decided to walk across the bridge myself to check it out. The views from there are very impressive. The main span I estimate to be about the equivalent of 10-15 stories high, so standing on it you tower over the harbor.

Here's a great shot the the Opera House from the bridge.

Note the HMAS non-museum piece warship sailing away - there's a naval base on the other side of the Opera House.

Here's a shot of CBD as seen from the bridge.

I should mention the support pylons are massive, and you can walk up to the top of one of them. I didn't have a chance to do that.

I took this picture from the restaurant where I had lunch. Note the BridgeClimb people walking off the bridge. You can see where they clip to the guideline and notice that the railing is ankle height. My heart started beating faster just thinking about what it must be like.

Here's one last shot of them congregating before going onto the actual 'hump' of the bridge.


I started to wonder if I should test myself... Maybe next time.

There's a little park under the bridge which has great views of North Sydney. There's a Coney Island type of complex there.

I find the grinning face to be a little creepy.

I finally got a good shot of something I'd been meaning to the whole trip. I saw a bunch of unusual looking half coupe / half pickup trucks which were popular in the 70s in the US. Here they're called Utes and are fairly common.



This particular one looks most like a normal pickup and is least striking - I saw plenty of othesr that looked like low-riders and were pastel colored. I couldn't get good shots of those.

I then explored the northwest side of the city some more on my way to Darling Harbour. There was an interesting semi-residential / semi-loft style neighborhood.

It was close to the port area where the Boat Traffic Control tower sits. As mentioned in the previous post it absolutely towers over everything. I wonder if the residents find it unnerving or if they get used to it.


I started to hum the song by Rockwell 'I Always Feel Like Somebody's Watching Me...'

One part of the neighborhood reminded me a lot of New Orleans - the acrhitecture is pretty similar.



A final shot of the BTC. Incidentally the building under it is Unversal Studios.

As an aside I fully satisfied myself that the city in The Matrix is Sydney. In the scene where Morpheus explains to Neo what is happening he turns on an old TV. There's an airborne tracking shot approaching the city and you clearly see the BTC in the foreground. I thought it was fitting.

I concluded my walk at Darling Harbour where I sat in the same place as before and enjoyed the view. The evening light was particularly impressive that day.