Gateway Bridge Opening

Yesterday we went for a walk, a long walk, over a long and very high bridge. It was the offical opening of the 2nd Gateway Bridge in Brisbane. Yes we already have one but ou little city has outgrown that one and we have desperately needed another for a few years. Finally it is here.


None of these photo's are very good or exciting, too busy being bustled by crowds and watching out for the children to worry about photo's really. We drove and parked at a designated parking area and caught a free shuttle bus to the edge of the bridge.


Thankfully it was a cool, overcast day otherwise it would have be an awful walk in the heat. If you click on this image and enlarge it you can kinda see the huge sea of people making their way to the top. I believe they estimated to have 157 000 people walk the bridge, more than double than what they had anticipated. Even though there were alot of people there it was still a good walk, there was room and no one was being squished.


They had children's artwork lining the walls of bridge and many large poster type signs showing photo's of the work and giving small bits of information. This one has some statistics on the materials that I thought was quite interesting.


How far things have come. 4 years to complete the first bridge but only 2 years for the second one, that's not bad going.


Dad carried little C up and over the bridge in our Ergo so he had a great ride. Once we were headed down for the last time he got out and had a blast, jumping in every hole, looking over the fence (he obviously had to be lifted) every few metres or so. Hence it took us much longer to get down then it did to walk up, but that was what they day was all about...the kids.


Here's a much nicer shot of the bridge, just imagine a second identical bridge running right alongside.

Little C had a day of many firsts too, his first time in a bus, his first walk over a very large bridge (I think a first for all of us) and we also took a drive through Brisbane's new Clem 7 Tunnel, it goes under the Brisbane River, this was a first for all of the kids. So in one day we went over the river and under the river.