20 Beautiful Bridges From Around the World
Rion-Antirio Bridge - Greece
The bridge crosses the merge point between the Corinth Gulf and the Patraikos Gulf, connecting ?mainland? Greece with its huge peninsula, the Peloponnese. Before now, only ferries tied to the two land masses together along this stretch of coast.
Due to the strong seismic activity in the area the Rion-Antirion Bridge needed to be able to withstand an earthquake of 7.4 on the Richter Scale. Engineers solved that issue by building a suspended deck that acts as a pendulum during an earthquake.
Gateshead Millennium Bridge - United Kingdom
Designers entering the competition to build the world?s first and only tilting bridge were briefed to design a structure for pedestrians and cyclists that wouldn?t overshadow the six bridges already crossing the River Tyne. The winning entry did end up overshadowing the other bridges, but not because of its size. Instead, the unique tilting mechanism, built to allow ships to pass underneath, became a landmark on its own. The bridge is made up of a pair of steel arches: a pedestrian and cycling deck and a supporting deck that form an ark over the river. The tipping movement of the two curves that make up the bridge?s structure has been compared to the opening of an eyelid.
Millau Bridge - France
At 984 feet tall, the Millau Viaduct over the Tarn River soars above the Eiffel Tower, which was also built by the French construction group Eiffage. It is the world?s tallest road bridge as well as the world?s longest cable-stayed bridge. The bridge, which opened in 2004, has a steel rather than a concrete roadbed. Drivers over the span have compared the experience to flying. At almost 1.5 miles long, the Millau Bridge is longer than the Champs Elysees.
Tower Bridge - United Kingdom
A bascule bridge in which the platform is raised and lowered to accommodate ships along the Thames, the Tower Bridge opened in 1894 to catcalls and derision. Critics panned its Neo Gothic architecture, designed to mimic the nearby Tower of London, as
But the critics eventually came around perhaps because of the sophisticated mechanism for lowering and raising the platform that lay underneath its gimcrack exterior. Originally powered by steam and now by electricity,the energy created by the bridge?s enormous pumping engines was then stored in six accumulators so power was instantly available as soon as the bascule needed to be raised. The accumulators fed the driving engines, which drove the bascules up and down. Despite the complexity of the system, the bascules only took about a minute to raise to their maximum 86 degrees.
Stari Most - Bosnia and Herzegovina
Stari Most, the ?Old Bridge? is now the new bridge crossing the river Neretva in Mostar. The 16th Century bridge was destroyed in 1993 by a Croatian shell. The shell not only destroyed the physical bridge, it also destroyed a structure that had symbolized Mostar since the bridge was built by the Ottoman emperor Suleiman the Great in 1566. Mostar means bridge keeper and Mostar?s bridge had enabled the town to become a vital crossroads of the Ottoman Empire.
The bridge reopened in 2004 after a 10-year reconstruction that used as many of the stones from the original bridge that could be salvaged from the river. The remaining stones were cut from the same quarry that was used in the original bridge. Flanked by the Halebija Tower on the right bank and the Tara Tower on the left, the bridge has a single hump-backed arch that rises 13 feet in the center.
Kintaikyo Bridge - Japan
The Kintaikyo was built in 1673 by the feudal lord Kikkawa to be used by Samurai. Devasted by a typhoon in September 1950, it was rebuilt in 1953 without the use of a single nail, exactly as the original had been. The span stretches 210 meters long across five wooden arch bridges.
xSydney Harbour Bridge - Australia
Known locally as the coat hanger, the bridgeand adjacent Opera House in Sydney Harbor are Australia?s most feted landmarks. Australians had been talking about building a bridge in Sydney Harbor since the early 19th Century, but it took 20th Century advances in both engineering and the production of steel and reinforced concrete make the project feasible.
Golden Gate Bridge - United States
When the idea for building a span across the Golden Gate was first broached, many thought that it couldn?t be done. Experts said that the ferocious winds, blinding fogs and swirling tides at the location would prevent construction. And San Francisco?s chief engineer said the project would cost around $100 million, an unheard of figure at the time.
A 1916 newspaper article asked engineers to come up with a cheaper plan and Joseph Strauss took up the challenge. It took Strauss more than a decade of lawsuits and political infights to get permission to build the span, but the project broke ground in 1930 and opened seven years later.
Strauss, the public face of the bridge, wasn?t, however, the man responsible for its design?though he pretended to be. That honor belongs to Charles Ellis, a self-taught engineer who was never given credit for the design until his obituary. Irving Morrow designed the shape of the bridge towers, the lighting scheme, and the streetlights, railing, and walkways.
Verrazano-Narrows Bridge
The last great public works project by Robert Moses, the Verrazano was the world?s longest suspension bridge from 1964 until 1981. Its 693-foot-high towers are farther apart at their tops than at their bases to compensate for the curvature of the earth. The bridge remains a vital link in New York City?s vast transportation network, carrying approximately 190,000 cars traveling a day along 12 lanes.
A bridge along the narrows had been the subject of great discussion since before all five boroughs united to form New York City in 1898. Until the bridge, Staten Island was only accessible by ferry, a method that worked fine when the weather was fine but not when the bay was choked with ice or when a fog closed in.
Brooklyn Bridge - United States
The great bridge linking the then-separate cities of Brooklyn and New York opened in May 1883 after 13 years of construction costing $15 million and 20 lives. Designed by John Augustus Roebling and completed by his son Washington Roebling, the bridge was the longest suspension bridge in the world at the time of its completion. It was also the first suspension bridge to use steel for its cable wire and the first bridge to use explosives in a dangerous underwater device called a caisson. Work on the caissons permanently debilitated Washington Roebling, who was afflicted with the bends while working underwater.
Kintaikyo Bridge - Japan
The Kintaikyo was built in 1673 by the feudal lord Kikkawa to be used by Samurai. Devasted by a typhoon in September 1950, it was rebuilt in 1953 without the use of a single nail, exactly as the original had been. The span stretches 210 meters long across five wooden arch bridges.
Mackinac Bridge - United States
After the 1883 opening of the Brooklyn Bridge, Michigan residents began lobbying for a bridge to span their state?s lower and upper peninsulas. Unfortunately, they wouldn?t get one until 1957. Until then, traffic between the two landmasses was strictly by ferry and thus came to a virtual standstill in the winter when the waters froze.
Michiganders claim their bridge is the longest in the Western hemisphere, a fact disputed by champions of the Golden Gate and fans of the Verazzano-Narrows bridge in New York. Length, it turns out, is subjective. The total length of the Mackinac Bridge is 26,372 feet. The length of the suspension bridge (including anchorages) is 8,614 feet. The length from cable bent pier to cable bent pier is 7,400 feet while the length of the main span between the towers is 3,800 feet. The Golden Gate stretches 4,200 feet between its towers.
Pont du Gard - France
Built around 19 AD to carry water from Uzes to Nimes, a 30-mile trek, this bridge over the Gard is 900 feet long and 160 feet high. On its first level it carries a road and at the top of the third level, a water conduit, which is 6 feet high and 4 feet wide.
The three levels were built in stone without mortar. Every stone block was cut to fit its place perfectly and some still bear the numbers assigned to them at construction. It is believed to have taken three to five years to build and around a thousand workers. It is the highest aqueduct bridge ever built by the Romans with three rows of arches: six on the bottom row, 11 on the second level and 47 on the top.
Bosphorus Bridge - Turkey
photo credit: WhatCouldPossiblyGoWrong?
The only bridge in the world to connect two continents?Europe and Asia?the Bosporus Bridge was also the site of the only tennis match on two continents, an exhibition game between , Venus Williams and Turkish star Ipek Senoglu. The 4,954-foot-long bridge opened in 1973, but men have been trying to bridge the waters since 490 BC when a pontoon bridge was built so the Persian Emperor Darius the Great could move his army into Europe.
Conwy Suspension Bridge - United Kingdom
One of the first road suspension bridges in the world, the bridge?s supporting towers were designed by builder Thomas Telford to match the turrets of the Conwy Castle, a 13th Century structure built by King Edward I. The bridge, in fact, is built into the rock on which Conwy Castle stands. The suspension bridge is small, only about 2 1/2 meters across, and is now open to pedestrians only. A wrought iron tubular railway bridge built by Robert Stephenson runs alongside the suspension bridge.
Oresund Bridge - Denmark and Sweden
The longest combined road and rail bridge in Europe connects the two metropolitan areas of the Oresund Region: the Danish capital of Copenhagen and the Swedish city of Malmo. More than a bridge, the 10-mile-long structure consists of a tunnel, a bridge and an artificial island. The artificial island of Peberholm was built to transfer traffic from the tunnel up onto the bridge. Peberholm is about four kilometers long and made up of dredged material from the surrounding seabed. The Oresund is the longest border crossing bridge in the world and the tunnel is the longest immersed tube tunnel for road and rail traffic in the world.
Ponte Vecchio - Italy
Built in the 14th Century, the Ponte Vecchio is the most famous of Florence?s six bridges spanning the Arno River. Lined with shops since its opening, Ferdinando I kicked out the original butchers, tanneries and greengrocers to make way for goldsmiths, reducing the odor emitting from the Ponte Vecchio and upgrading the neighborhood. The row of shops is interrupted in the center and the bridge opens over the Arno with two panoramic terraces.
In the 16th Century, Cosimo I de? Medici, Duke of Florence, commissioned a corridor to run over the bridge and connect the Palazzo Vecchio with the Palazzo Pitti.
Rialto Bridge - Italy
Built between 1588 and 1591, as a permanent replacement for the boat bridge and three wooden bridges that had spanned the Grand Canal at various times since the 12th Century, the Rialto was the only way to cross Venice?s Grand Canal on foot until the Accademia Bridge was built in 1854.
Khaju Bridge - Iran
Built about 1650 by Shah Abbas I as a dam, the 435-feet-long bridge has two levels: The lower level regulates the flow of river by locks; a covered indoor area upstairs provides a space for people to drink tea and socialize.
Lupu Bridge - China
