Sydney Harbour Bridge: 1,332 Steps Above Common Sense

Sydney has no shortage of places to admire its harbor. You can stare at it from Circular Quay. Drink something irresponsibly expensive at a rooftop bar. Take a ferry. Photograph it from approximately 47 different angles.

Or you can put on a deeply unflattering gray jumpsuit, attach yourself to Australia’s largest steel coat hanger, and climb 134 meters above Sydney Harbour.

Obviously, I chose the latter.

The Sydney Harbour Bridge Climb is one of those tourist attractions that initially sounds slightly ridiculous, especially when you discover how much it costs. Then you’re standing at the top of the bridge with the Sydney Opera House below you, ferries carving white trails through the harbor and Sydney stretching toward the horizon.

Suddenly, the credit card charge becomes considerably easier to justify.

---

DESTINATION: Sydney Habour Bridge Climb

---

THE WORLD’S LARGEST COAT HANGER

Before Australians started charging tourists money to climb it, the Sydney Harbour Bridge had the slightly more practical purpose of connecting central Sydney with the North Shore.

Construction began in 1924 and took eight years, thousands of tons of steel and roughly 1,400 workers to complete. Working conditions were somewhat different in the 1920s, when “workplace safety” occasionally consisted of trying not to fall off the enormous steel structure you were building.

The bridge finally opened in 1932.

Its enormous curved steel arch quickly earned it the nickname “The Coathanger,” which isn’t particularly flattering but is also difficult to argue with once you see it.

Today, the bridge carries cars, trains, bicycles and pedestrians across Sydney Harbour while serving as one of Australia’s most recognizable landmarks.

And because humans are apparently incapable of looking at something tall without eventually asking, “Can we climb that?”, BridgeClimb Sydney opened in 1998.

Millions of people have since answered that question with a very expensive yes.

---

PAYING MONEY TO CLIMB SOMETHING YOU CAN CROSS FOR FREE

Let’s address the obvious problem.

The Sydney Harbour Bridge Climb isn’t cheap.

You can literally walk across the pedestrian section of the bridge for free, enjoy excellent views of Sydney Harbour and leave with significantly more money in your bank account.

But that’s not really the point.

Walking across the bridge means looking through it like a normal, well-adjusted tourist.

Climbing it means standing on top of it, because apparently humans aren’t that different from dogs. We see something enormous, immediately need to climb to the highest possible point, look down at everything we can see and mentally declare, “Yep. This is mine now.”

The only real difference is that dogs would piss on the bridge to make it official.

The climb takes you through the enormous steel skeleton before eventually dumping you onto the upper arch, 134 meters above sea level, where you can survey Sydney Harbour like an overconfident Labrador who just claimed the entire fucking continent.

The Sydney Opera House sits below you. Circular Quay wraps around the harbor. Ferries move between tiny waterfront neighborhoods. Skyscrapers rise behind you while the Pacific horizon disappears somewhere in the distance.

It is one of the best views in Sydney.

Unfortunately, your camera and phone will not be joining you.

---

FIRST, THEY REMOVE EVERYTHING FUN

BridgeClimb has spent decades perfecting the surprisingly complicated science of preventing tourists from dropping their shit onto eight lanes of moving traffic below.

And apparently, they have very little faith in you.

Phones, cameras, watches, jewelry and basically anything not permanently attached to your body gets confiscated before you’re allowed anywhere near the bridge. If gravity can take it from you and introduce it to someone’s windscreen at 100 km/h, it’s staying behind.

In exchange, you’re issued the official BridgeClimb jumpsuit, a magnificent piece of Australian fashion engineering designed to make everyone, regardless of age, nationality or body type, look like they’re reporting for the night shift at Chernobyl.

Then comes the harness.

Then the radio.

Then more straps.

Then clips for the straps.

Then someone checks the clips attached to the straps attached to you.

Then someone else apparently checks that person’s work.

There’s a safety briefing, an equipment inspection and a practice run to confirm that you possess the advanced motor skills necessary to climb stairs without killing yourself or several commuters below.

By the time you’re dressed, inspected, strapped, clipped, checked, rechecked and presumably cleared by Australian air traffic control, you’re no longer sure whether you’re climbing the Sydney Harbour Bridge or being launched into low-Earth orbit.

Then the door opens.

And there it is.

A gigantic steel bridge towering above you.

At which point all the ridiculous preparation suddenly makes a lot more sense.

---

THE CLIMB

Despite what the promotional photos suggest, you don’t immediately step onto the beautiful upper arch with Sydney sparkling dramatically behind you.

First, you have to get there.

The route winds through catwalks, ladders, platforms and the industrial guts of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Trains rumble nearby. Traffic moves beneath you. Massive steel beams intersect overhead while millions of rivets hold together something built nearly a century ago.

It feels considerably more industrial than glamorous.

And that’s actually one of the best parts.

From street level, the Harbour Bridge looks almost simple. One enormous steel arch stretching across the water.

Inside it, the scale becomes ridiculous.

Everywhere you look there are beams, braces, rivets and structural components large enough to make you wonder how anyone managed to assemble this thing in the 1920s without computers, drones or approximately 600 project-management meetings.

Your guide keeps the group moving at a comfortable pace while explaining the bridge’s history, construction and assorted stories accumulated during nearly a century above Sydney Harbour.

Eventually, the industrial maze gives way to the arch.

And that’s when the climb gets good.

---

1,332 STEPS LATER…

The Sydney Harbour Bridge Climb involves roughly 1,300 steps, which sounds horrifying until you’re actually doing it.

This isn’t some vertical mountaineering expedition requiring oxygen tanks and a Sherpa.

The pace is slow.

There are frequent stops.

And because everyone is connected to the same safety system, your overly ambitious friend can’t suddenly decide this is CrossFit and sprint toward the summit.

You just keep climbing.

Higher.

And higher.

Sydney gradually opens around you until the steel beneath your feet seems impossibly narrow compared with the enormous city surrounding it.

Then you reach the summit.

134 meters above Sydney Harbour.

This is why you paid the money.

The view is spectacular.

Sydney Opera House below. The harbor stretching in every direction. Boats moving through the water like toys. The skyscrapers of downtown Sydney rising behind you.

And unlike looking through a window from an observation deck, you’re outside.

There’s wind.

There’s noise.

There is absolutely nothing between you and the skyline.

Except, fortunately, a very substantial safety cable.

---

TWILIGHT IS THE CORRECT ANSWER

BridgeClimb offers climbs throughout the day and into the evening, and each has its advantages.

Daytime gives you the clearest views and those ridiculous Sydney blues that make the harbor look like someone increased the saturation slider.

Nighttime transforms everything into glowing skyscrapers, illuminated ferries and reflections across black water.

But twilight?

Twilight wins.

You begin while Sydney is still fully visible in daylight. Then, while you’re somewhere high on the arch, the sun starts dropping toward the horizon.

The harbor changes from blue to gold.

The Opera House catches the final sunlight.

The skyline slowly illuminates.

By the time you’re heading back down, Sydney has transformed into an entirely different city.

You’re basically getting daylight, sunset and nighttime Sydney during the same climb.

If you’re flying halfway around the planet and spending this much money to climb a bridge, you might as well maximize your return on investment.

---

YES, THEY TAKE YOUR PICTURE

Because your camera has been confiscated for the duration of the experience, BridgeClimb photographers handle the important responsibility of documenting your temporary lapse in financial judgment.

There are several photo stops along the route, including the obligatory summit shot.

This is where everyone spreads their arms dramatically and attempts to look like an adventurous world traveler rather than someone who has just climbed approximately 1,300 stairs wearing a jumpsuit.

Couples wanting to take the leap occasionally use the summit for marriage proposals, because nothing says forever quite like being physically chained to the same bridge 134 meters above Sydney Harbour.

It’s actually a brilliant strategy. There’s nowhere to run, nowhere to hide, and absolutely no graceful exit if the answer is no.

You just get to spend the rest of the climb clipped together in complete silence while your guide desperately tries to resume talking about rivets.

Romance.

---

WHAT GOES UP…

Eventually, someone decides you’ve had enough fun and it’s time to return to Earth.

The descent follows another route through the bridge structure, and after the initial adrenaline of reaching the summit, you can actually pay more attention to the absurd amount of steel surrounding you.

It also feels considerably easier.

Mostly because gravity has finally decided to participate in this adventure.

You work your way back through the ladders, catwalks and structural framework until you eventually disappear inside the BridgeClimb building again.

Harness comes off.

Jumpsuit comes off.

Your belongings are returned.

And civilization resumes.

---

SHOULD YOU CLIMB THE SYDNEY HARBOUR BRIDGE?

There are plenty of expensive tourist attractions around the world that survive almost entirely because people feel obligated to visit them.

The Sydney Harbour Bridge Climb isn’t one of them.

Yes, it’s expensive.

Yes, you’re essentially paying several hundred dollars for permission to walk up something.

And yes, you will look ridiculous in the jumpsuit.

Do it anyway.

Because there aren’t many cities where you can legally climb one of the country’s most famous landmarks and stand directly above one of the most recognizable harbors on Earth.

This isn’t about extreme physical difficulty or terrifying exposure. The climb is carefully controlled, surprisingly accessible and designed so normal people can complete it without requiring mountaineering experience or thighs manufactured by Patagonia.

It’s about perspective.

You’ve probably seen Sydney Harbour thousands of times in photographs. You’ve seen the Opera House. You’ve seen the bridge.

But seeing all of it from the top of the Harbour Bridge is completely different.

Book ahead, wear comfortable shoes and don’t obsess over the weather. Climbs operate in a wide range of conditions, and Sydney doesn’t suddenly become ugly because there are clouds.

Most importantly, don’t spend the entire summit worrying about the photos.

Look around.

You’re standing on top of the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

Sometimes yelling YOLO while entering your credit card number actually works out.