On March 18 the 1915 Canakkale Bridge opened in Turkey. The bridge is the world’s longest suspension bridge (6,637 feet) and was constructed in five years.
According to the Daily Mail, the bridge connects the European and Asian shores of the Dardanelles Strait – a key waterway – from Gelibolu on the European side of Turkey’s northwestern province of Canakkale, with the town of Lapseki on the Asian side.
The bridge allows travellers to cross the Dardanelles – which connects the Aegean Sea with the Sea of Marmara – in just six minutes compared to the previous 90 minutes by ferry, a journey that including waiting times could extend to five hours.
Read more about the bridge at the Daily Mail here or watch the video below.
Have you ever seen/heard of the Øresund Bridge? It’s a five-mile-long bridge (and underwater tunnel!) that connects Sweden and Denmark. It opened in 2000 and combines both motorway and railway travel.
The underwater highway is 2.52 miles long and is named the Drogden Tunnel. Two tubes in the tunnel carry railway tracks, two carry roads, and a fifth tube is provided for emergencies.
You can read all the details about this bridge here. Here’s a video that highlights the engineering feats of this bridge.
If anyone has travelled across this bridge, let us know!
The Gateway Arch (or St. Louis Arch, as many call it) is a magnificent structure located in St. Louis, Missouri. It is also called the “Gateway to the West.”
It was built in 1963-65 and is a monument to Thomas Jefferson and his ideas for America’s westward expansion. The Arch is the tallest man-made structure in the Western Hemisphere, standing 630 feet high. It was designed by Finnish-American architect Eero Saarinen in 1947 and cost $13 million. The monument opened to the public on June 10, 1967. It is located at the site of St. Louis’s founding on the west bank of the Mississippi River.
The arch’s two legs were built separately, and if their measurements were off by as little as 1/64th of an inch, they would not have been able to join at the top.
The arch is tall as it is wide.
The insurance company for the project predicted that 13 workers would die during construction. No one died during construcction.
Due to security concerns, presidents aren’t allowed to go to the top—except President Eisenhower (who signed the order for construction of the monument).
I visited the Gateway Arch back in the 90s. I’m not a big fan of heights yet you have to visit this monument if you go to St. Louis! The scariest part? The tram to the top.
The tram is a “one-of-a-kind” invention created by Dick Bowser. You step (and duck your head) into what looks like an egg shell design (they call it a capsule). If you are not a fan of tight spaces this is not for you! Read about the design of the tram system here and see what the ride up to the top of the arch looks like:
When you get to the top, here’s the spectacular views: (start at 4:50 mark; there’s more tram ride up before that, if interested):
If you haven’t been there, enjoy the virtual visit!
