Sea Cliff Bridge

The Sea Cliff Bridge is one of Australia's most scenic drives and walks — a 665-metre cantilevered structure that hugs the Pacific coastline between Clifton and Coalcliff, about 20 kilometres north of Wollongong. The bridge was completed in 2005 and replaced a stretch of coastal road that repeatedly succumbed to cliff erosion.

You can drive across it in a couple of minutes or park at either end and walk the dedicated pedestrian path alongside. The views from the path are exceptional: the Tasman Sea below, the escarpment rising to your left, and — if you time it right — humpback whales migrating along the coast. The surrounding area, including the Bald Hill lookout and the Royal National Park just north, makes this a natural half-day trip from Wollongong.

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A story
The bridge was built because a section of the old Lawrence Hargrave Drive kept falling into the sea — the cliff face beneath was too unstable to maintain a road. Engineers solved this by building the road out over the water instead, anchoring it to the rock face with a cantilevered structure. The solution has become more famous than the problem it solved.