There are three different options to explore Sydney Harbour bridge:

1. Sydney Harbour Bridge Walk  – where we get to walk on the pedestrian path, built on the bridge.

2. Sydney Harbour Bridge Climb – actual climb of the bridge with ropes and other equipment, a strenuous one, for the adventure seekers.

3. Sydney Harbour Bridge pylon lookout – take some steps the top of the bridge and enjoy the amazing city views.

We did the Harbour Bridge walk multiple times, but the other two options needed some planning and were in wishlist for quite sometime. Since Harbour Bridge Climb was an expensive one, it was constantly evaluated for its worth and got postponed indefinitely 😛 We decided to try something different and less expensive one – Pylon lookout.

The Pylon lookout is situated within the Sydney Harbour Bridge South-East Pylon, which can found on the Harbour bridge walk.

The lookout was amazing with 360 degree views of the city from Circular Quay to Blue mountains. I always had the disappointment of not being able to take photos from the Harbour bridge walk due to the presence of grills and I found an answer to that in the form of this lookout 🙂

We walked around the lookout in all directions for different views. There was a map listing important places along the direction we are looking at, providing us with the required information.

On the other direction of lookout is the arch of the Bridge, where we could see people climbing it (Bridge Climbers). It felt interesting to watch them climb, there are many stairs to reach the top and it looked straight forward, but in the interest of safety, they have some equipment attached to them.

I waited for the perfect moment to capture the road, train and pedestrians using the Bridge all at once 🙂

There was a photo in the museum gallery displaying two arches at once and we had to search for the right place to get the picture!! Though it was a photographic magic, it was amazing to watch two at once 🙂

On the way back, we stopped by at the museum to understand the history of the bridge. It was an astonishing engineering feat of those times. It spans about 500 meters (1,650 feet) and was the largest single steel-arch bridge of its time.

We learnt a lot of details about the Bridge construction and started appreciating the Bridge even more after our visit! It was a fun half day trip to know about the history and enjoy the beautiful city views.

Note: There is no accessibility option to reach this lookout, there are around 200 steps to reach the top.

Now comes the final big question, did I give up my dream of doing the Sydney Harbour Bridge Climb after the Pylon lookout? May be no, I am more than happy with the Pylon lookout, but I realized Bridge climb is more an adventure than a lookout and I am excited for that experience too, lets see if that happens anytime soon 🙂