The Sydney Part 2: The Big Three / Dec30-Jan04

There are 3 big things people know about Sydney: New Year's Eve, the Opera House and the Bridge.

New Years Eve
Us and few thousand mates camped out at the north end of the bridge.  This only one of many many venues.

The smart people came prepared.

Preshow: a fireboat spraying a flood of water.  It's been a long wait, then a short fireworks display at 9 for the kiddies and then only 3 more hours!

Waiting, waiting.  It's a beautiful night.

Ka-boom

The rest was just amazing.  There were fireworks on the bridge, from the buildings downtown and on several barges on the bay.  Well worth the wait, and the $5 million.


Sydney Opera House

The Opera House was designed in the 1950's with a budget of $7 million and 3 years.  It took a bit more than that: $102 million and 16 years.  Paid off in 3 years thanks to the NSW Lottery.

The tiles are slightly yellow to avoid blinding people during the 240 days of sunshine every year.

The interior is as amazing as the exterior.

The Bridge
This is the largest single span girder bridge in the world.  They don't make them like this anymore.  It's 134m above the water at it's highest point (ask me how I know that)

The bridge was built in the 1930s and has 8 lanes of traffic, 2 rail lines, bicycle and pedistrian lanes.   At the time there were 11 cars in North Sydney.  There are over 6 million rivets (twice that the Effiel Tower) all installed by hand, by workers without safety equipment. One worker fell from 54m and survived, although his boots didn't.

Back in the day, university students would climb up the inside of the girders and toss back (and over) a few brews from the top.

Those dots on top of the bridge are today's climbers who have to pass a breathalyzer test.

They climb a series of ramps and ladders to the top.

Cheers mate!