Most Popular Bridges In the World

Every bridges around the world are built for a purpose.  A bridge is somewhat a link or a gateway linking one place to another.  It may be linking one city to another for a purpose of convenience or just making a gateway to make other place accessible to all.

There are different types of bridges built around the world.  There  beam bridges, cantilever bridges, arch bridges, suspension bridges, cable-stayed bridges and truss bridges.  Bridges are designed mainly for pedestrian, road traffic, trains, pipelines, waterways for barge and other.

When we visit to another countries and places, aside from the buildings and natural beauty of it, bridges also give this places beauty.  A landmark where everybody can remember.

Here are some of the Most Popular Bridges in the World

The bridge was officially opened on 30 June 1894 by The Prince of Wales and his wife, The Princess of Wales.  Tower Bridge is one of five London bridges now owned and maintained by the Bridge House Estates, a charitable trust overseen by the City of London Corporation. It is the only one of the Trust's bridges not to connect the City of London to the Southwark bank, the northern landfall being in Tower Hamlets.

The weight of the roadway is hung from two cables that pass through the two main towers and are fixed in concrete at each end. Each cable is made of 27,572 strands of wire. There are 80,000 miles (129,000 km) of wire in the main cables.  The bridge has approximately 1,200,000 total rivets.  The bridge-opening celebration began on May 27, 1937 and lasted for one week. The day before vehicle traffic was allowed, 200,000 people crossed by foot and roller skate.

The Gateshead Millennium Bridge is a pedestrian and cyclist tilt bridge spanning the River Tyne in England between Gateshead's Quays arts quarter on the south bank, and the Quayside of Newcastle upon Tyne on the north bank. The award-winning structure was conceived and designed by architects Wilkinson Eyre and structural engineers Gifford.   The bridge is sometimes referred to as the 'Blinking Eye Bridge' or the 'Winking Eye Bridge’ due to its shape and its tilting method.

The bridge was officially opened by Queen Beatrix on September 6, 1996, having cost 165 million Dutch guilders to construct. Shortly after the bridge opened to traffic in October 1996, it was discovered the bridge would swing under particularly strong wind conditions. To reduce the trembling, stronger shock dampers were installed.

The Millau Viaduct is located on the territory of the communes of Millau and Creissels, France, in the département of Aveyron. Before the bridge was constructed, traffic had to descend into the Tarn River valley and pass along the route nationale N9 near the town of Millau, causing heavy congestion at the beginning and end of the July and August vacation season. The bridge now traverses the Tarn valley above its lowest point, linking two limestone plateaus, the Causse du Larzac and the Causse Rouge, and is inside the perimeter of the Grands Causses regional natural park.

Construction of the crossing began in 1995. It was finished on 14 August 1999. Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark and Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden met midway on the bridge to celebrate the completion. The official inauguration took place on 1 July 2000, with Queen Margrethe II, and King Carl XVI Gustaf as guests of honour. The crossing was opened for public traffic later that day. On 12 June 2000, before the inauguration, 79,871 runners competed in a half marathon (Broloppet, the Bridge Run) from Amager (Denmark) to Skåne(Sweden). In spite of two setbacks - the discovery of 16 unexploded World War II bombs on the sea bed and a skewed tunnel segment - the crossing was finished 3 months ahead of schedule.

The Magdeburg Water Bridge (German: Wasserstraßenkreuz) is a navigable aqueduct in Germany, completed in October 2003. It connects the Elbe-Havel Canal to the Mittellandkanal ("Midland Canal"), crossing over the River Elbe. The canals had previously met near Magdeburg but at opposite banks across the River Elbe. It is notable for being the longest navigable aqueduct in the world, with a length of 918 metres.

The nanpu bridge is the first steel and concrete composite girder cable-stayed bridge built in shanghai. the total length of the bridge is 8346 meters with a centre span of 423 meters, ranking third among cable-stayed bridges in the world. the tower height is 150 meters with two lines of strong cables suspending the bridge. the spiral bridge approach in puxi is considered to be a wonder in world bridge construction.

descriptions are courtesy of Wikipedia