If you admire bridges

How about some of these stunners

http://www.theguardian.com/culture/gallery/2013/sep/28/the-10-best-bridges?CMP=twt_gu#/?picture=418357147&index=9

I love bridges. I must try and think up my own list of favourites, ones I've seen and ones I'd like to see.

Me too WG and I was delighted to see the Pontcysyllte in this collection. I've narrow boated across it a few times but, last year on holiday in the area, we walked across and strangely that was scarier than boating across!

In other bridge related news:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-nottinghamshire-24322485

and

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-24323394

I did the trip over the Pontcysilite viaduct a week ago. I have dreadful vertigo but was persuaded to go over on a narrow boat. I thought if I steered the boat then concentration would overcome the panic and fear of the drop either side!! I was doing ok (looking straight ahead and definitely not to the left or right over the sides) when the boat in front decided to stop half way over to take photos. Vertigo kicked in, panic erupted and I had to go below.

The problem being that having gone over it once, you then have to turn around and come back over it again - which is worse knowing what it is going to be like!!

The viaduct is incredible. The views, when looked through fingers in front of my eyes, are amazing. If you are ok with heights then I would recommend it to anyone. And the narrow boat trip from Llangollen is great fun. Im just not sure you would ever get me going over it again as long as I live!!

Right, let's start a collection. Number 1 the Pont du Gard. Strictly speaking an aqueduct rather than a bridge but an incredible piece of engineering that has stood for two thousand years. If I had built that I would have been rather pleased with myself. There is a road bridge that was added alongside the lower tier and completed in 1747.

http://www.samplace.net/timeout4/The_Pont_du_Gard_Roman_Aque.gif

I get really bad vertigo but have a strange urge to drive really fast over that Norman Foster one in France.

http://www.fosterandpartners.com/projects/millau-viaduct/

I get really bad vertigo but have a strange urge to drive really fast over that Norman Foster one in France.

 

http://www.fosterandpartners.com/projects/millau-viaduct/

We've done it a few times towing a caravan, mainly northbound. It's not too bad, the viaduct is curved and there are glass strip screens on either side that shield you from the vie a bit. If my wife can take it, anyone can.

Number 2, the viaduct at Garabit:

Built by Eiffel and opened in 1885.

I like the Juscelino Kubitschek bridge in Brasilia, the capitol of Brasil. Modern and quite simple looking but pleasing on the eye.

The Balcombe Viaduct on the Brighton to London railway line. I commuted that for five years and its the only part of the journey where regular commuters look up from their paper and taken in the view.

Also the 1,000 year old Puente di Diavolo (Devil's Bridge) in Bagni di Lucca Italy

I like Monsieur Eiffel's aqueduct at Briare (over the Loire). Obviously nothing like the Pont du Gard http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/79/Pont_Canal_de_Briare_45250.jpg

Couple more:

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=The+Wind+and+Rain+Bridge&es_sm=93&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=opZIUvGgLIuq7QbolYH4Bw&ved=0CAkQ_AUoAQ&biw=1920&bih=965&dpr=1 Wind & Rain Bridge (China)

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=Ponte+Vecchio+Florence&es_sm=93&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=4JZIUpe2Dojm7AaH4oGQCQ&ved=0CAkQ_AUoAQ&biw=1920&bih=965&dpr=1 Ponte Vecchio (Florence)

We've done it a few times towing a caravan, mainly northbound. It's not too bad, the viaduct is curved and there are glass strip screens on either side that shield you from the vie a bit. If my wife can take it, anyone can.

 

Number 2, the viaduct at Garabit:

 

by Eiffel and opened in 1885.

No matter how badly you might suffer from vertigo, the Millau viaduct is preferable to the previous bloody nightmare, which was to drive through Millau itself.

I have a soft spot for this and others like it, the Clapper Bridge at Postbridge on Dartmoor.

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=postbridge+clapper+bridge&rlz=1C1TEUA_enGB463GB463&es_sm=93&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=vpdIUonBIuWA7Qa2mIHABQ&ved=0CAkQ_AUoAQ&biw=1366&bih=663&dpr=1#facrc=_&imgdii=_&imgrc=HRj3Z3VlWMbG3M%3A%3BRmQBivNHVkrj4M%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fs0.geograph.org.uk%252Fphotos%252F22%252F46%252F224691_d2e701ca.jpg%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.geograph.org.uk%252Fphoto%252F224691%3B640%3B480

Given the technology available at the time, it was a considerable feat of engineering to manouver those great slabs of granite into place and drop them on the piles.

It shows how man's ingenuity has advanced from this to some of the amazing feats of engineering we have today.

I like the Juscelino Kubitschek bridge in Brasilia, the capitol of Brasil. Modern and quite simple looking but pleasing on the eye.

 

Nice

This one's fun:

http://www.kathmography.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/rolling_bridge_h120809_ss_1.jpg

You've started something now.

http://www.bridgeink.com

We've done it a few times towing a caravan, mainly northbound. It's not too bad, the viaduct is curved and there are glass strip screens on either side that shield you from the vie a bit. If my wife can take it, anyone can.

 

Number 2, the viaduct at Garabit:

 

 

Built by Eiffel and opened in 1885.

Like you Whitey I, as discussed on another thread, have been down the same road as you The Viaduct d'Garabit is very impressive when you factor in the year it was built then the height and length, then a good few miles down the road the Millau Viaduct from the first moment you see it is hypnotic, must have been over it 20 times at least and everytime the Camera comes out.

As an aside I find the Escalier just down the road, when the Motorway plunges a couple of Thousand feet in a very short distance fascinating too as that is also a feat of road building simply because its 4-5 lanes of motorway.

It doesn't always go to plan:

http://www.ameriquefrancaise.org/media-668/12_Etat_du_pont_apres_l_ecroulement_du_29_aout_1907_LARGE.jpg

The Quebec bridge disaster of 1907. On graduation Canadian engineers are presented with and iron ring to constantly remind them of their responsibilities to society. It is widely believed that the rings are made of iron from the collapsed bridge.

It doesn't always go to plan:

 

http://www.ameriquefrancaise.org/media-668/12_Etat_du_pont_apres_l_ecroulement_du_29_aout_1907_LARGE.jpg

 

The Quebec bridge disaster of 1907. On graduation Canadian engineers are presented with and iron ring to constantly remind them of their responsibilities to society. It is widely believed that the rings are made of iron from the collapsed bridge.

One of the first projects Mechanical Engineering students at Sussex University have to do is design a model bridge. They are then tested to destruction. The one with the best strength to weight ratio wins.

Tacoma Bridge - the one that oscillated itself to death

(and along similar lines, one in Russia that didn't collapse

Like you Whitey I, as discussed on another thread, have been down the same road as you The Viaduct d'Garabit is very impressive when you factor in the year it was built then the height and length, then a good few miles down the road the Millau Viaduct from the first moment you see it is hypnotic, must have been over it 20 times at least and everytime the Camera comes out.

 

As an aside I find the Escalier just down the road, when the Motorway plunges a couple of Thousand feet in a very short distance fascinating too as that is also a feat of road building simply because its 4-5 lanes of motorway.

Trouble there is that lorries are limited to 50 Km/h, you're limited to 70 and that there are radars everywhere, makes overtaking

hazardous because of the bends, always quite please to see the Lodeve panel, a quite stressful descent on big lorry and camper van days.

Trouble there is that lorries are limited to 50 Km/h, you're limited to 70 and that there are radars everywhere, makes overtaking

hazardous because of the bends, always quite please to see the Lodeve panel, a quite stressful descent on big lorry and camper van days.

Had a nightmare there this summer towing a long heavy caravan in sidewinds.

Had a nightmare there this summer towing a long heavy caravan in sidewinds.

wouldn't be the only spot for that on the A75 either, the drop to St Germain du Teil must have been pretty tricky as well. Still apart from the bridge which you can cut out for 20 minutes extra anyway it's a decent road for free. Use it a lot, always go by Millau in the summer though cos..well I'm a cheapskate.

Right, let's start a collection. Number 1 the Pont du Gard. Strictly speaking an aqueduct rather than a bridge but an incredible piece of engineering that has stood for two thousand years. If I had built that I would have been rather pleased with myself. There is a road bridge that was added alongside the lower tier and completed in 1747.

 

http://www.samplace.net/timeout4/The_Pont_du_Gard_Roman_Aque.gif

Love the Pont Du Gard too. And walking the top is the most serious test of vertigo I've ever faced. No parapet or other protection whatsoever, just narrow walkway with 100foot plus drop.

My favourite - nothing special except for how steep it is. Feels like 45degrees but probably much less in reality. You just have to put you foot down and go, absolutely no idea what's coming the other way (a coach when I done it once!!!) until you crest it as you're staring straight into the blue sky.

Northern end of La Manga strip in Spain.

On the subject of aqueducts, the one in Segovia is an absolute beauty - and it still carries water into the town over 2,000 years after the Romans built it...

This is the one they should have built.

Esso could have chipped in along with ABP who may have got Dibden Bay if there was a decent road in and out. Of course it would also have meant that the long ago plans for a major link to from the Eastern Docks to the M27 at the Airport junction had actually come off. We eventually ended up with the half-hearted Thomas Lewis Way.

This is the one they should have built.

 

 

Esso could have chipped in along with ABP who may have got Dibden Bay if there was a decent road in and out. Of course it would also have meant that the long ago plans for a major link to from the Eastern Docks to the M27 at the Airport junction had actually come off. We eventually ended up with the half-hearted Thomas Lewis Way.

It would have looked better in red and white stripes

I have always maintained that the Itchen bridge should be toll-free. If the aim is to join communities and help run-down zones such as Woolston then you should do everything possible to facilitate the local economies.

For brick arches Brunel's at Maidenhead takes some beating.

It would have looked better in red and white stripes

 

I have always maintained that the Itchen bridge should be toll-free. If the aim is to join communities and help run-down zones such as Woolston then you should do everything possible to facilitate the local economies.

If the aim was to help Woolston it would never have been built in the first place - it was a much busier place in the days of the Floating Bridge before the "bypass bridge" was built.

He was certainly very funny in Hot Shots Part Deux

The council promised the city the Itchen Bridge would be toll-free once paid for.

This latest rabble decided last year to renege on that promise.

The council promised the city the Itchen Bridge would be toll-free once paid for.

 

This latest rabble decided last year to renege on that promise.

Much as I'd like to agree with you that's an urban myth. Everyone my age and older remember's that being reported in the Echo, but there is no mention of it anywhere official. A member of the original working party for the bridge (now retired and certainly not one to stick up for the council of either party) told me personally that it was never even a consideration.

+1 for Millau Viaduct. Went over in a coach, so could see right over edge. Scary. Also this one over the Arade River outside Portimao in the Algarve.

http://www.google.co.uk/search?rlz=1C1GGGE_en-gbGB528GB536&biw=1280&bih=899&tbm=isch&sa=1&q=portimao+bridge&oq=portimao+br&gs_l=img.1.0.0j0i24.7310.7981.0.9315.3.3.0.0.0.0.75.178.3.3.0....0...1c.1.27.img..0.3.178.RdSBBnKlHjI#facrc=_&imgdii=_&imgrc=gcxfcnS1Zt3N1M%3A%3BmFG-M1eAep8KfM%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.travel-in-portugal.com%252Fphotos%252Fdata%252Fmedia%252F4%252Fportimao-bridge.jpg%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.travel-in-portugal.com%252Fphotos%252Fimg496.htm%3B848%3B565

+1 for Millau - fantastic.

How about some of these stunners

 

http://www.theguardian.com/culture/gallery/2013/sep/28/the-10-best-bridges?CMP=twt_gu#/?picture=418357147&index=9

They got the wrong London bridge didn't they surely they mean this one?

http://www.golakehavasu.com/about-us/about-havasu/london_bridge1.aspx

wouldn't be the only spot for that on the A75 either, the drop to St Germain du Teil must have been pretty tricky as well. Still apart from the bridge which you can cut out for 20 minutes extra anyway it's a decent road for free. Use it a lot, always go by Millau in the summer though cos..well I'm a cheapskate.

Cheapskate!! it's Bobbins to go over it, just think of the cost v the total length of great free motorway you have travelled on in getting there

There is a bit a good few miles before the Bridge on the A75 where I discovered an optical illusion a few years back, having been cracking along 22ft of Caravan in tow I had loaded well and everything was steady as a rock perfectly balanced. I was giving it some across the flat bits for the ascents looming ahead, on one such descent I spotted where the road was flat and upped my speed for the steep ascent just watching the road I felt a twitch through the seat at the base of my spine (you can always feel what's going on behind you there) no wind, no cars, looked at the speedo and the needle was just passing 90mph!! Cold sweat! Instant thought was don't move anything but your accelerator foot. Looking in the mirror I realised that I was still going downhill even though it looked flat: I went up the ascent very nicely, not having to change gear. Certainly had the effect of a triple Espresso for the next couple of hours!!

Esfahan has some nice bridges and some great tea rooms below.

Here are some more suggestions. I'd forgotten about the one in Ronda

http://www.theguardian.com/culture/gallery/2013/oct/05/readers-suggest-10-best-bridges?CMP=twt_gu#/?picture=418736773&index=0

All ten are worthy examples and are what I would recommend myself. How could I have overlooked the Ironbridge?

All ten are worthy examples and are what I would recommend myself. How could I have overlooked the Ironbridge?

I did the same WG We're hoping to go back there for a long w/e very soon - love that neck of the woods.