bridge over untroubled water.

i am living on the lower north shore of sydney. this means that to get to the city proper i must cross the fabled sydney harbour bridge. well, perhaps it isn't exactly fabled- i don't think aesop was big up on the bridge- but it certainly is, along with the opera house, the city's most distinguishable landmark. and it is impressive. and huge.

the bridge was built in the early part of the last century with all architectural sights set on erecting the longest single arch span ever constructed. you can imagine their mild consternation when mere weeks before the bridge was completed in 1932 the bayonne bridge opened in new york at- get this- just 25 inches longer! can you imagine losing the world's biggest bridge-building pissing contest by a distance shorter than the height of amy winehouse's beehive? the outrage! anyhow, at 1650 feet this bridge is nothing to sneeze at.

(for the record- i am not some freakish bridge expert; the facts are gathered from a book i'm reading about australia.)

but back to not sneezing at the bridge. 1650 feet is a big bridge. and there is nothing modern or fancy about the bridge- it is breathtaking in its simplicty. girders. towers. endless blue sky behind. even with grey sky it is breathtaking. and so this graceful, hulking arch is my conduit into and out of the city.

so far i have crossed the bridge in a car, on a bus, in a train, and, most favourably, on foot. twice now i have put one foot in front of the other 1650 times (give or take) and walked my way over the blue swells of the pacific into the top of the city. the view from the bridge is astounding: surrounded on all sides by the lush green of the banks of the harbour freckled with terracotta roofs, the smiling face of luna park to the west, the stranded rocks of fort denison to the east, and the unavoidable stunning brilliance of the opera house. and sky. everywhere you look there is sky. the sky here seems to go on forever, wider than you can see all at once, arching endlessly above until it knits itself to the ocean at the horizon.

i was planning on walking into the city again this morning but a thunderstorm waylaid my plans. so i took the bus across. and while all the sydneysiders kept their gaze to the papers in front of them or the text messages flashing across their blackberries, my eyes never left the world outside the window- the bridge below, the sky above, the harbour all around.

i can't get enough of it.

to the north to the south.