Ten Most Amazing Bridges
Langkawi Sky-Bridge
One of the world’s highest single-support bridges
Where:
The top of the 500-million-year-old Mount Mat Cincang, Langkawi, Malaysia.
Stats:
2,000 feet above sea level; 410 feet long; curved; less than six feet wide.
Awe Factors:
This curved half-moon-shaped pedestrian bridge, set among the clouds,grants non-acrophobic adventurers 360 degree views of the Langkawi islands and theAndaman Sea. Built for tourists and opened in 2005, the bridge is accessed by a 15-minute ride in an electronic cable car, which leaves from the Oriental Village mallcomplex.
Hangzhou Bay Bridge
The longest ocean-crossing bridge in the world
Where:
Hangzhou Bay on the East China Sea, traversing the Qiantang River at theYangtze River Delta.
Stats:
22 miles long.
Awe Factors:
With waves that reach 25 feet high and crash on the shore at 19 milesper hour, the rough waters of Hangzhou Bay had to be studied for nearly a decade
before plans were drawn. Construction itself took nearly five years. Now that this S-shaped, stayed-cable bridge is complete (it opened to the public in May 2008),commuters from Shanghai to Ningbo save two hours and will soon have a service areaon the bridge to refuel, grab a bite, or even get a night’s sleep if needed.
Leonardo’s Bridge
Designed by Leonardo da Vinci in 1502 and constructed by Vebjørn Sand in 2001
Where:
This pedestrian and bike arch bridge is in Akershus, Norway, but da Vinci hadplanned for the bridge (to be named the Golden Horn Bridge) to span the waterwaydividing western Constantinople for Sultan Bajazet II.
Stats:
A scaled-down version of the design da Vinci had proposed, Sand’s bridge is 360feet long and 19 feet above the ground. (The original was intended to be muchbigger: 1,080 feet long and 120 feet above sea level).
Awe Factors:
The bridge is considered by da Vinci scholars to be the first civilengineering project in history based on a da Vinci design, but if it weren’t forNorwegian artist Vebjørn Sand’s keen eye, the small drawing in the corner of one ofda Vinci’s notebooks might have remained just an idea. Instead, Sand proposed to theNorwegian Public Roads Administration that it help “reimagine” this mathematicallyand structurally gorgeous design. Today, the smaller-scale timber structure (da Vincihad wanted stone) near Oslo is, Sand hopes, the first of many Leonardo bridgesaround the world. Already the artist has created two versions of the design, craftedout of ice—one in Antarctica and the other at the United Nations in Manhattan. Sandand his team are working on creating similar bridges in Odessa, Texas; Karuizawa,Japan; and Istanbul, Turkey, where it was originally intended to be built.
The Bosphorus Bridge
A suspension bridge linking two continents
Where:
Istanbul, Turkey, spanning the Bosphorus Strait.
Stats:
4,954 feet long; 210 feet above sea level.
Awe Factors:
Completed in 1973, this suspension bridge, the only bridge in the worldlinking two continents (Europe and Asia), has been in the works since 490 B.C., whenthe bridge was made of a fleet of boats. Talks of a suspension bridge began in 1900,and again in 1931 by Nuri Demirag, the architect who manufactured the first plane inTurkey; it was finally commissioned in 1967 and completed six years later. A tennismatch played on the bridge in May 2005 between Venus Williams and Turkish grandslammer Ïpek Senoglu was the first-ever competition to take place between twocontinents.
Gateshead Millennium Bridge
The world’s first bridge to use a tilting mechanism to open, forming a gateway forships to pass
Where:
On the South Bank of England’s River Tyne, between Gateshead andNewcastle.
Stats:
413 feet wide; 164 tall when open.
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Ten Most Amazing Bridges
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Gateshead Millennium Bridge is a must-see for anyone who are interested in architecture . Moving bridge over the river is just Magnificent!!!!! the bridge tilts at 12 o'clock noon every day. http://www.thetop10guide.net/top-10-r...