France opens tallest road bridge

CNN​.com — France opens tallest road bridge — Dec 14, 2004:

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“MILLAU, France (AP) — Pier­cing the sky above the ver­dant hills of southern France, a stun­ningly modern road­way bridge hai­led as the tallest in the world was offi­cially inau­gu­ra­ted Tuesday.

Cele­bra­ted as a work of art and an object of French natio­nal pride, the Millau bridge will ena­ble moto­rists to take a drive through the sky — 270 meters (891 feet) above the Tarn valley for a 2.5 kilo­me­ter (1.6 mile) stretch through France’s Mas­sif Cen­tral mountains.

Desig­ned by Bri­tish archi­tect Nor­man Fos­ter, the steel-and-concrete bridge with its stream­li­ned dia­go­nal sus­pen­sion cables rests on seven pillars — the tallest mea­su­ring 340 meters (1,122 feet), making it 16 meters (53 feet) taller than the Eif­fel Tower.

The bridge, which has an airy and fluid appea­rance, was desig­ned to have the ‘deli­cacy of a but­terfly,’ Fos­ter said in an inter­view with regio­nal daily news­pa­per Midi Libre.

‘A work of man must fuse with nature. The pillars had to look almost orga­nic, like they had grown from the earth,’ said Fos­ter, who also desig­ned London’s Millen­nium Bridge.

Colorado’s Royal Gorge Bridge, towe­ring 331 meters (1,053 feet) above the Arkan­sas River, is the world’s tallest sus­pen­sion bridge — but it is desig­ned for pedes­trians. The Kocher­tal via­duct in Ger­many was the highest road­way, at 185 meters (607 feet), offi­cials said.

Pre­si­dent Jac­ques Chi­rac, surroun­ded by wor­kers in hard hats, lif­ted a French flag cove­ring a pla­que on the bridge in the town of Millau on Tues­day. Figh­ter jets roa­red overhead, lea­ving a trail of red, white and blue smoke.

Millau is best known outside France as the place where anti-globalization acti­vist Jose Bove dis­mant­led a McDonald’s restaurant.

The bridge, nearly three years in cons­truc­tion, opens to vehic­les Thursday.