Strolling in Sydney's Darling Harbour, Witnessing the Rotation of Pyrmont Bridge Deck

📍 Sydney · 👁 189 reads

Darling Harbour (also known as Lovers' Harbour) is located in the northwestern part of Sydney's city center, 2 kilometers from Central Station and connected to Chinatown. It is not only Sydney's most colorful tourism and shopping center, but also a venue for major conferences and celebrations.

The charming scenery of Darling Harbour is as intoxicating as its name suggests...

Around the harbor are beautiful waterfront restaurants. The high-rise buildings standing beside the bay exude nobility and elegance.

The entire harbor is filled with all kinds of luxury yachts, forming a beautiful scenery.

On the other side of the wharf is a street of beautiful bars and restaurants. At night, the bars emit relaxed modern music, bursts of laughter, and the sounds of people laughing and playing. On weekends or holidays, there are fireworks displays.

In a small square of Darling Harbour, there is a small musical fountain that dances gracefully with the changing music and lights.

There is also a small Ferris wheel here.

I especially envy the locals in Sydney; one can imagine how romantic it is at night. This is a great place for photos, with lots of delicious food, and you can enjoy the high-rise buildings of Sydney along the shore.

Outside the Royal Australian Maritime Museum in Sydney Harbour, quietly moored are the HMAS Vampire, a Daring-class destroyer of the Royal Australian Navy, and the HMAS Onslow, an Oberon-class submarine.

The HMAS Vampire was the third Daring-class destroyer built in Australia. During the 1965 Indonesia-Malaysia confrontation, it participated in exercises near Singapore, and in 1965-1967 and 1969 sent troop escort convoys to Vietnam. It never directly engaged in action. The Vampire underwent extensive refits in 1970-71, modernizing its surveillance and fire control systems. Ten years later, it completed its final refit and became the navy's most important training ship. The Vampire was decommissioned in 1986 and partially dismantled, lent to the National Maritime Museum in 1990, and transferred in 1997.

The Oberon-class submarine HMAS Onslow

'The pearl boat Tribal Warrior (built in 1899), the Tribal Warrior (originally named Mina) is the country's oldest surviving wooden working vessel. This was the first boat owned and crewed by Australian Aboriginal people.

In 1606, communities on the Cape York Peninsula were among the first Aboriginal people to encounter Europeans... and repelled them. These Europeans were Dutch sailors sent by the Dutch East India Company on the Duyfken (meaning "little dove") to seek trade opportunities. The Duyfken was a small, nimble vessel capable of both sailing and navigating shallow waters. The Dutch commander Willem Janszoon and the 20 crew members of the Duyfken participated in the exploration and spice trade of many locations in Southeast Asia in the early 17th century. This sometimes led to conflicts with local people and other European powers. The full-sized Duyfken was built by the Duyfken 1606 Replica Foundation in conjunction with the Australian Wistarh Maritime Museum and was exhibited in Fremantle on 24 January 1999. Thanks to the strong support of the Kalis people, the construction of the ship went smoothly.

Pyrmont Bridge, built in 1902, originally carried vehicles and pedestrians. Later, two vehicular bridges were built to its south, and this bridge was converted into a sightseeing bridge for pedestrians and cyclists only. It is one of the largest swing spans in the world and the first electrically powered opening bridge, representing the highest level of development of the Uiniber truss.

Walking on Pyrmont Bridge, you can take in the surrounding scenery. To the north of the bridge is Darling Harbour (Lovers' Harbour) and the dense waterfront restaurants on both sides of the harbor. There is also a Ferris wheel and a large convention and exhibition center, with some boats moored in the harbor.

Pyrmont Bridge connects both sides of Darling Harbour. Although it is not as massive as the Sydney Harbour Bridge, with a total length of only 369 meters, it is equally impressive. It is the world's first electrically operated swing bridge. When a tall ship needs to pass, the middle section of the bridge rotates 90 degrees on rollers, opening the passage on both sides for the ship. However, there is no fixed "performance" time; whether you witness it depends entirely on luck.

There are small wheels all around the piers, and the piers can rotate 360 degrees.

We were so lucky to have witnessed the entire process of the bridge deck rotating.