Provides plenty of room to duck and cover under!!!
Time to honor the French!
Alons enfants de la patrié, le jour de gloire est arrivé!
I noted that as well.
Is this the bridge that was shown being constructed on Discovery HD Theater? I believe the programs name was "Extreme Engineering"
Isn't this just waving a red flag at the Islamikazis? Sounds like a terrorist playground.
When was the last time that the U.S. created a monumental bold feature for any purpose whatsoever? It is sad to the point that all of our construction projects that are the source of natural pride would not be allowed to be built today.
It is culturally painful to allow idiots to steer the direction our country has gone since 1972.
Think: the Charles de Gaulle
There is no power on Earth that could get me to drive across that thing.
Lets hope the Germans know how to broken step march...
This is going to draw suicide candidates like a magnet.
Geez, that is 1/6th of the cost of the SF Bay Bridge Earthquake retrofit, which will be a glorified freeway onramp. Here is a pic, with the suspension feature that will be deleted due to costs.
> ... the tallest measuring 340 meters (1,122 feet),
> making it 16 meters (53 feet) taller than the Eiffel Tower.
Note that it is the tallest, and not the deepest.
The title for deepest (1053 ft) is still held by:
http://www.royalgorgebridge.com/html/park-information/highest-suspension-bridge.html
By PERRINE LATRASSE, Associated Press Writer
MILLAU, France - Thundering fighter jets streamed the blue, white and red of the French tricolor as President Jacques Chirac on Tuesday dedicated the world's tallest bridge, a skyway span dwarfing the Eiffel Tower by more than 50 feet
Ahead of its public opening Thursday, the Millau bridge in southern France has been celebrated as a work of art combining the strength of cement and steel with the "delicacy of a butterfly."
Images of the bridge, which dominates the Rhone Valley countryside for miles, have appeared in national media for days.
Stretching 1.6 miles through France's Massif Central mountains, the bridge will enable motorists to take a drive 891 feet above the Tarn River valley.
Chirac underscored the national pride stirred by the bridge by lifting a French flag from its ceremonial plaque, followed by air force jets trailing the colors of France.
"This exceptional opening will go down in industrial and technological history," Chirac said, praising the designers and builders for creating "a prodigy of art and architecture — a new emblem of French civil engineering."
The bridge will serve as a symbol of "a modern and conquering France," he said.
Designed by British architect Norman Foster,(nasty Anglo-Saxon) the steel-and-concrete bridge with its streamlined diagonal suspension cables rests on seven pillars — the tallest measuring 1,122 feet, making it 53 feet higher than the Eiffel Tower.
Foster said in an interview with regional daily Midi Libre that the bridge's airy and fluid appearance was designed to have the "delicacy of a butterfly."
"A work of man must fuse with nature. The pillars had to look almost organic, like they had grown from the Earth," Foster, who also designed London's Millennium Bridge.
In an editorial Tuesday, Le Monde declared the bridge "a work of art."
Colorado's Royal Gorge Bridge, towering 1,053 feet above the Arkansas River, is the world's tallest suspension bridge.
The Kochertal viaduct in Germany was the highest roadway, at 607 feet, officials said.
Millau, whose skyline is dominated by the bridge, had until now been best-known outside France as the site where anti-globalization crusader Jose Bove dismantled a McDonald's restaurant.
The $523 million bridge was commissioned to open a new north-south link between Paris and the Mediterranean and is expected to relieve bottlenecks caused by trucks and tourists headed to the Riviera.
Special roundtrip bus rides over the bridge were planned for Wednesday for residents a day before the span opens to vehicles.
Some 28,000 vehicles a day are expected to cross the bridge in the summer months, and about 10,000 a day the rest of the year, according to France's Eiffage construction company, which built it.
Tolls for motorists will vary from $6.50 in winter to $8.60 in summer. Trucks will have to pay $32.24 year round.
Here's the full article beforte it was cut and pasted by CNN. NB Chirac's comment about "an all conquering France". So there you francophobes, France is back in the conquering business( even it was designed by a nasty anglo-saxon Brit)