Get the Ultimate Vivid View with BridgeClimb Sydney
If you've ever thought about climbing the Coathanger, the time is now.
Look up at night and you'll see them: tiny, shimmering, human constellations, creeping their way up, over and down the Harbour Bridge like caterpillars of light. This is The Vivid Climb, and for the next few weeks, you're invited to be a part of it.
Operating since 1998, BridgeClimb Sydney has seen over 3 million people traverse the bridge's southern half. Standing 134m tall and running 1,149m in total, the bridge has a silhouette that perhaps only Uluru and the Opera House can rival as the internationally recognised symbol for Australia. It can be driven on, walked across, flown over and sailed beneath; however, the truly memorable experience is reserved for the climbers.
Under normal conditions, a Bridge Climb is already an extraordinary and rewarding activity, even for lifetime residents of Sydney. Short of flying in over the harbour, there's no other opportunity to see the city in all 360 degrees from such a centrally elevated point. By day, it is – predictably – a sparkling showcase of the Emerald City's crowning glory, but by night, as the blue waters blacken beneath the autumn sky, the harbour's foreshore comes alive with the lights of the annual Vivid Festival, and the view from up top is, quite simply, unsurpassed.
There's also something special thrown in this year: a sensory cherry on top of the steel cake that pays special tribute to the Bridge's most charming sobriquet. Since its opening in 1932, the Sydney Harbour Bridge has gone by many names — the Coathanger, the Iron Lung, the House of Flying Traffic Jams — yet its importance as a roadway and its iconic value have earned it one other enduring and beloved moniker: 'The Heart of the City'. Now, as part of VIVID, you can perch yourself at its peak, afix a heart-rate monitor to your pinky and project your heart beat to the city with an aural and visual experience directed entirely by your bloodflow.
Who's the audience? Everyone. Truly. The Bridge Climb is an experience open to a far wider demographic than you might expect. Neither age nor disabilities are considered meaningful hindrances for anyone wishing to partake, and its combination of pre-climb training, extensive safety measures, reassuring guides and imperceptibly small inclines makes it more than palatable for even those uncomfortable with heights. In truth, probably the most pressing concern for many would simply be passing the breathalyser exam at the start of the tour. As the saying goes: if you drink and climb, you're a bloody idiot. Or a backpacker.
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