Sydney Opera House
Day Twelve - Australia & The Great Ocean Walk - 2025
One last day in Australia, spent taking a tour of the world’s greatest architectural icon!
1. Sydney Opera House #1
The Sydney Opera House opened in 1973 after a sixteen-year design and construction period.
We will talk about the Sydney Opera House in a minute, I promise….
Sharply at 4AM, my alarm clock pierced the silence of my hotel room, and -after an incredibly amount of pawing at it- I was able to rise and quickly get ready for the day. Mercifully, finding an Uber willing to take me to The Rocks was surprisingly easy and before long I stood in front of the warehouse which houses the Sydney BridgeClimb, unsure about my life decisions.
I have had a very uneven relationship with heights in my life, in particular tall bridges. This fear of bridges -called gephyrophobia- is not a terribly productive condition to have on the East Coast of the United States, which is home to several long, tall, and -most importantly- old, rusty bridges. I’ve only had one legitimate panic attack on a bridge before (on a particularly notorious bridge east of Washington, D.C.) but one is more than enough for you to know you never want to have another one.
So, what the hell was I thinking doing the Sydney BridgeClimb? Honestly, I’m not sure. Sometimes you just need to face your fears, I guess. All the same: there I was at 5AM, in total darkness, needing to just take that first step into the building. I breathed heavily and walked in.
In an effort to curb my gephyrophobia, I rationalized that doing a sunrise tour would help me ease into the climb itself (my thinking was that if I didn’t see the ground or horizon in the darkness I’d be better off.) After a long safety briefing and clinical suiting-up process, it was go-time. I clipped into the safety line and made my way up the southwest arch. I remember staying focused on the person in front of me (when driving across tall bridges, gephyrophobics are told the best thing to do is focus on the license plate in front of them) and managing the speed of my steps carefully.
All was going surprisingly well and before I knew it we reached the 2/3rd point. The rays of the sun were wrapping around the edges of the earth, illuminating the spaces between the thick, fluffy morning clouds over Port Jackson with violet and orange colors. Slowly, I craned my neck upward and to the right to the Opera House below. “Here goes nothing,” I thought. Wow! What an amazing view, one I can’t begin to describe. I remember being overly aware of the signs of a panic attack: tunnel vision, vertigo, accelerated heart rate … but, I had none of these. I even got a photo taken of me smiling with my hands off the bridge’s railing!
Before long, we were at the portal between the south and north walkways. Making my way across was a bit stressful, probably because of the rushing car and train traffic beneath me but -sincerely- it wasn’t bad at all. A delicate decent of the steps brought us back to terra firma and I couldn’t believe I had just accomplished this feat.
If you are reading this and are apprehensive about heights or bridges: I promise you can -and should- do the Sydney BridgeClimb! And, if you do, I hope it is as transformative of your views of heights and bridges as it has been for me.
Photographer’s Comment: Cameras are not allowed on the Sydney BridgeClimb. You can buy a photo pack with your climb (definitely encouraged!) but the terms of use of the photographs prevent you from reposting them for commercial purposes. I don’t make money running this website and am therefore dubiously “commercial”; however, as to not run afoul of their policy I’ve decided to not post them here. You’ll just have to use your imagination! Also: I cannot recommend the sunrise tour enough if you are lucky enough to be able to get a ticket.
2. Sydney Opera House #2
It was designed by Danish architect Jørn Utzon, who won a design competition featuring 233 entries.
Anyway, about the Sydney Opera House! Following my Sydney BridgeClimb tour, I had a quick breakfast before making my way over to Bennelong Point for an architectural tour of what is in my opinion the world’s most iconic structure.
The architectural tour (conveniently called the Architectural Tour) is a 75-minute-long walking tour focused on the engineering of the structure and the challenges the design team and construction crew faced. As I’ve never taken the standard 60-minute tour before, I cannot say how this differs, but I would say if you have any interest in the history of this building this is an incredibly informative option.
Twelve photographs from the architectural tour follow.
3. Sydney Opera House #3
When construction began in 1959, work was estimated to last four years and cost $7 million Australian ….
4. Sydney Opera House #4
… In actuality, construction lasted fourteen years and cost over $100 million Australian.
5. Sydney Opera House #5
In 1966, due to the aforementioned cost and time overruns as well as political pressure from the regional government, Jørn Utzon quit the project.
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6. Sydney Opera House #6
Utzon left Australia, vowing never to return; he died in 2008, having never seen his completed work.
7. Sydney Opera House #7
One significant design change was made in the early 1960s: the original design included several parabolic roof pieces, but -due to weight and engineering complexity- this was changed instead to a series of 2,194 circular roof pieces covered by 1,056,006 tiles.
8. Sydney Opera House #8
The project’s submittal was initially placed into the rejection pile during the design competition …
9. Sydney Opera House #9
… But was saved by Finnish architect Eero Saarinen (Gateway Arch, the T.W.A. Flight Center) who claimed he could not endorse any other project.
10. Sydney Opera House #10
Over 10,000 workers built the Sydney Opera House.
11. Sydney Opera House #11
6,223 square meters / 67,000 square feet of glass was used on the exterior.
12. Sydney Opera House #12
The Opera House contains over 15,000 lightbulbs.
13. Sydney Opera House #13
The total square area of the Sydney Opera House roof is 1.62 hectares / 4 acres.
14. Sydney Opera House #14
Sydney Opera House was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2007, making Utzon only the second living person to see a work added to the registry.
After the conclusion of the tour, I met up with a friend I hadn’t seen in about 15 years (!), then living in a nearby suburb. Always lovely to catch up with folks, especially on the other side of the world! Following this, I made my way back to my hotel in what became an uncharacteristically early evening for me (waking up at 4AM + adrenaline + day drinking + early morning flight back to the U.S. = sleep!). The next morning I made my nearly 14 hour return flight to Los Angeles, followed by another 6 hours back to the East Coast. And, with that, my first Australian adventure came to an end!
Recognizing that recency bias is a thing, if someone were to ask me my favorite trip of all-time, I’d certainly give this one a really, really good thinking over as a candidate. Between the stunning scenery, the lovely hiking, the wildlife, and the beautiful cities of Sydney and Melbourne, I’m hard-pressed to think of a better 14-day travel period. Either way, what an absolutely incredible introduction to Australia, a country I look very much forward to returning to soon!
