when i first arrived in sydney my in-laws drove me over the harbour bridge from the airport, i was underwhelmed. it's a big metal bridge, next to a strange spiky opera house over some water. it was a few months later that i began travelling across on my own, down the cahill expressway. now the thing about the bridge is to catch it when there is no traffic, it's just a very smooth drive under a criss cross of architecture that begins to grow on you the more it's traversed. it has a strange history, a man called francis de groot rode up on horseback the day the ribbon was to be cut and he beat the prime minister in slashing the ribbon with a long silver sword. he said he opened the bridge on behalf of the people of new south wales and was promptly arrested, fined five pounds, given a psychiatric assessment declared sane which was later reversed. he then went on to sue the police for wrongful arrest and was awarded an out of court settlement, having won his case. 
now as i drive across the bridge i always think of this chap, slightly eccentric spirit, on horseback charging into authority against the odds and winning. this to me sums up australia and everytime i drive over the bridge i give a salute to old de groot, the guy was one of the many personalities that inhabit australian history's underbelly. he don't get no tv show made after him, he won't get the girls, he probably won't even get a look in at skools, but to me he's an example of why i love this city.
the bridge itself has it's own moods and changes depending on the time of day and weather conditions. i've driven over at midnight on new years under an exploding sky as fire works rain down and colour lights up the whole vista, sometimes in the rain it's eerie and in fog i'm transported to some victorian nether world, but mostly in late afternoon sunlight its spectacular.
i always choose the bridge over the tunnel, unless i'm heading to the airport, it links sydney's north to the city, and bridges the incredible waterways of the harbour.
these days people climb over the bridge, in some sort of tourist trap, not something i'd consider, to me it's a structure of resounding beauty despite it's overwhelming metallic energy, from underneath in the luxury of a nice sea fairing vessel the bridge towering above, and you can't help but be impressed by human engineering. this is a bridge that trolls can't live under, it's a bridge that don't belong in fairy tales and children's stories, it's real worldly and reeks of human achievement and toil. 
then there's the toll.
now the toll puts a kibosh on the bridge because even though it's  cash free and electronically deducted from your account it's the sinister invisible hand of government reminding you of your civic duty, from which there is no escape, they have satellites looking into your soul. 
once you leave the bridge into the city, there's a few multiple choice exits, you can head over the glebe island bridge driving past the offices watching people slaving away at their desks and cubicles and then catch a glimpse of darling harbour or you can take the exit that goes straight into the city centre but i usually head down the exit that slips past the opera house and circular quay, here you get a sprawl of ferries all lined up waiting to fill up and depart, sometimes one eases in from manly and you can see the hordes of people leaving. i like that flow of transit, the waterways conducting traffic, access all areas, trains buses ferries and foot. sydney welcomes people with beauty, sure it can throw you out with the trash to but the trash is glamourous and kinda sexy to. yeah superficial city until you pierce it's fabric and get over all that surface gleam. 
the city is divided up into tribes, the rocks is the oldest part, some sort of english historical area where i never really go, although there is a modern art gallery there. at night it's filled with drunk people, and the pubs all pump out pub rock songs. i can't say i'm attuned with the rocks, possibly it's a bit to artificial for me, except one night the church played a free concert there, outdoors and whenever i go there these days i am cast back to that performance where they played, 'you took' for the first time in ages.