I’d put money on the Sydney Harbour Bridge being one of the two landmarks that come immediately to mind when you think about NSW’s capital.
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The Coathanger, as it’s affectionately known, looms over the harbour, providing a thoroughfare between the central business district and the north shore, with eight lanes for road and rail traffic.
It also accommodates pedestrians.
The bridge is so big that it has more rivets holding it together than there are residents of the city (around six million rivets versus about 5.2 million humans).
The landmark, alongside the other one I’d bet first comes to mind when thinking of Sydney — the Opera House — is so iconic that when you fly into the city, there’s no doubt where you are.
You can see it dominating the landscape on the descent to the airport, and its unique look, which took eight years to bring to life, is unmistakably Sydney.
On our last trip there, we decided to climb it.
We’d already ferried under it, walked on and under it, driven over it and viewed it from the plane, the water and the land.
Despite a local strongly suggesting there’s no need to climb it when you can just walk over it and save yourself a lot of money on what he considered an overpriced tourist experience, it’s truly not the same.
During this experience, you climb the bridge in single file, expedition style, to the ‘summit’, the highest point of the bridge.
Instead of looking down on the bridge from a plane or up at it from water or land, you look up and down from it.
It’s a completely different perspective to just walking over it.
While I appreciate tips from locals on our travels, some things you just have to find out for yourself.
Yes, it was an expensive experience, but it was a big, fancy operation.
It was run professionally, informatively and, most importantly, safely.
Devices, earrings and even our clothing had to be stashed in lockers while we donned breathable climb suits.
Long hair had to be tied back, glasses had to be fitted with holders, headsets had to be worn for communication, and hats for sun protection.
After briefing and kitting up, we were harnessed and taught how to move through the cable and ladder system on a little structure set up for practice inside the building where the climb begins and ends.
Once your guide is confident everyone in the group has the hang of it, you head outdoors and clip on to the grand steel structure.
A reasonable level of fitness is required, given the amount of climbing on your journey to the summit.
But we even built up a sweat on the much easier descent, given the pace we had to move when a lightning storm broke out and started moving quickly in our direction when we were right on top of the bridge, crossing from one side to the other.
While there are lightning conductors on the bridge, there are thankfully no risks taken with participants’ lives.
The group after us did not reach the summit that day; climbers were turned back to the starting point to have their experiences rescheduled.
The BridgeClimb experience is about more than just climbing the bridge and getting a new profile pic for your Facebook page; it’s a history lesson as well.
Our guide told stories of the 1400 men who worked on the bridge and the unfortunate deaths of 16 of them during construction.
He told one about a man named Vincent Kelly, who fell almost 52m from the bridge in 1930 but survived by turning several somersaults in the air on his way down and entering the water feet first.
We learned 52,800 tonnes of steel was used in the bridge’s construction, that it’s the world’s largest steel arch bridge, and that the pylons at either end are not even functional — they’re just for decoration (and housing a museum).
We learned a lot more, but if I tell you everything, there might be nothing left for you to learn if you go.
A couple of days after our climb, when we were back home, we watched on TV the New Year’s Eve fireworks in Sydney, some of which we’d seen being laid on top of the bridge by pyrotechnicians who were working to a tight deadline while we were up there.
I wondered how much that storm we encountered had hindered their progress; did they descend too, or did their company’s OH&S policy trust the conductors to protect their workers?
You can travel to learn – and learn you do – but then you yearn for even more knowledge.
It can only make you smarter, right?
Or at least a sought-after member on a trivia team.
DETAILS
What: BridgeClimb Sydney.
Where: The Rocks, Sydney.
When: Seven days a week; day, night, dawn and twilight.
Cost: Child from $149; Adult from $294.
Who: Anyone aged over eight years (and taller than 1.2m) with a reasonable fitness level who can sustain exertion over 3.5 hours and 1.75km. If over 24 weeks pregnant, you cannot climb. If over 75 years of age or less than 24 weeks pregnant, a certificate of fitness from a doctor is required.
To book: bridgeclimb.com
The Young and the Restless