A Walking Tour of Sydney

Hello 5th graders!

Wow, we have been so incredibly busy the past couple of days! So much has happened and we are all dying to share our experiences in Sydney with you all! Anyway, on January 18th we had a walking tour of Sydney, Australia. This is Adrian, our tour guide for the morning:

He is a student at New South Wales University and has been a resident of Australia his entire life! He is majoring in History. Anyway, he provided us with some extensively informative information about the Sydney Bridge.

The Sydney Bridge was constructed during the Great Depression from 1824 to 1832. According to Adrian, 16 people died during this construction of the bridge and it cost the country 14 million English Pounds! It was originally painted gray because gray was a cheap color (of course because it was the era of the Great Depression) and was finally paid off by the city in 1980. Another half million (Australian dollars) was spent later for the additional framing later. What we mean by that is the stone pillars on each side of the bridge. From the flag on top of the bridge to the water is 150 meters, but from the top of the stone pillars to the water is only 95 meters high.

Fact: Did you ever watch the movie Crocodile Dundee? The main actor, Paul Hogan, was a painter of the bridge before he became a famous movie actor!

Did you know that people can actually walk on top of the bridge? It costs $150 to $200 Australian dollars to walk on top of the bridge. They do this in groups of 10 to 14 people at a time. Can you spot some walkers in the picture above?