Beautiful road bridges

Over the mountain gorges, over sea straits come overland route over the waterways are run on paved roads are: giant bridges connecting all transport communications in one system - the last missing links in an unbroken chain of roads. Bridge - a bridge, and so is the best symbol of European integration. That bridge got pride of place on the euro banknotes. And let them appear in the main historic buildings, it is huge new bridges, paved the way for a single new Europe. For example, a bridge over the Great Belt strait. Like the two Eiffel Tower, the piers of the bridge rise from the water to a height of more than 250 meters. Span length of 1,624 meters and an average altitude of 65 meters. This bridge, since 1988, connecting the Danish island of Zealand and Funen, is the second largest after Japan's Akashi-Kaykuyo Bridge was among the largest in the world. The fact that Denmark eventually will lose the image of the island nation, it was clear long ago. In 1935, after 11 years of construction ceremonially opened bridge over the Little Belt, linking the island of Funen and Jutland. Earlier visit to Copenhagen is often hindered weather and a strike of employees ferry. Now the way has not only become more predictable, but shorter. If the earlier trip on the ferry to Fyn Zealand held at least two hours, now it is the same distance by car can be overcome with a little over 15 minutes. And the change to the ferry did not have even if you are going on in Scandinavia: the opening of the summer of 2000 nearly 8-kilometer route between Copenhagen and Malmo Oresund Strait joined the pan-European motorway in a single network, which covers now the whole of Europe - from the North Cape to Gibraltar. But even abstracting from the common European values ??Oresundskih bridges, it is obvious that this project would positively impact primarily on the development of local region: Copenhagen in the Danish North Zealand and Malmo and Lund in southern Sweden, now form a single economic prostranstvo.Naprimer for Scandinavian airline SAS major transport node is not in Stockholm, namely, Copenhagen. At the same immediate vicinity of the airport and Oresundskogo bridge now quickly built up area of ??Copenhagen called Orestad. Of course, for the implementation of such plans needed considerable investment: a total project cost of 3 billion euros. Joerg Shlayh, which is one of the greatest structural engineers of our time, whose work focused primarily on the engineering design of bridges, is familiar with the matter firsthand. His office in Stuttgart is responsible for the stability of structures such as the Hamburg Television Tower, or the roof of Olympic Stadium in Munich. Of course, first of all bridges must solve the transport problems of cities. So, in 1995 at the mouth of the Seine on the Atlantic coast was built almost two-kilometer bridge "Pont de Normandie" - one of the most ambitious engineering schemes ever undertaken in France. He joined the port city of Le Havre on the west by France. In 1998, in Lisbon on the Tagus River bridge was built Vasco da Gama. 17-kilometer structure tied to the center of densely populated areas of the eastern part of the Portuguese capital. And at the same time, these bridges are masterpieces of engineering and architectural art Shlayh speaks of the bridge across the Seine as on the construction of "an important and original" from a technical point of view, and the complex of bridges over the Tagus calls "a very elegant and perfectly executed." Nevertheless, the famous engineer opposes any uniformity. In his opinion, the bridges, along with its primary function - to bind the beach or the city - should bear the load and the aesthetic. The bridge must be designed in accordance with the terms of its location, in order to really fit harmoniously into the natural environment and accurately express the shape of the region. So, Shlayh always engaged in designing large bridges, which would have a unique character, such as bridge Hooghly Bridge in Calcutta. A bridge Ting Kau from Hong Kong Airport Chep Lak Kok, is an example of how topography can be used with economic advantage. Among other things, Shlayh is the developer of a number of railroad overpasses and pedestrian bridges, as, for example, in the harbor of Humboldt in Berlin or at the exhibition grounds in Hannover. In the Netherlands, a symbol of the modern bridge and the latest trends in this area was Erasmus Bridge in Rotterdam, designed by young architect Ben van Berkel. Combined drop-down bridge on inclined cables connects downtown with the new district of Rotterdam, "Kop van Zuid" on the south bank of the river Maas. Asymmetrical bridge and the cables strung on pylons like a sail, to the form of a swan's neck - an impressive compound of technology and aesthetics. The biggest bridge in the world: Lake Ponshartreyn, USA, 38.41 km Donghay, China, 32.5 miles (the movement is open, but construction is still ongoing), Oresund, connecting Denmark and Sweden, 7,620 meters (part of the way the truth is in the tunnel), Akash Kaikyo, Japan, 1990 meters Brooklyn Bridge, USA, 1825 meters the Great Belt, Denmark, 1624 meters Humber, United Kingdom, 1410 meters Tsin Ma, Hong Kong, 1377 meters Verrazano Narrows, USA, 1298 meters Golden Gate, USA, 1280 meters Mackinac Straits, USA, 1158 meters