Registered: Aug 2001
Location: Hilbert Space
Posts: 35561

It is, indeed, a big bastard. Click to the source for some pics.

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France shows off tallest bridge

The world's highest road bridge has been inaugurated in southern France by President Jacques Chirac.

The Millau bridge over the River Tarn in the Massif Central mountains is more than 300m (984ft) high - taller even than the country's Eiffel Tower.

The bridge, which opens to traffic on Thursday, was built to clear summer traffic jams around the town.

The BBC's Paris correspondent, Caroline Wyatt, says the bridge is one of the most breathtaking ever built.

She says that with its concrete and steel pillars soaring high above the morning fog in the Tarn Valley, the construction makes a spectacular sight.

'Delicacy of a butterfly'

Seven slender piers support the roadway, rising into seven graceful pylons bound to the bridge with what look like cobwebs of steel, our correspondent says.

"The bridge is just on the clouds," Millau Mayor Jacques Godfrain told the BBC's World Today programme.

"The architect, Norman Foster, gave us a model of art."

Mr Foster said the bridge 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," the world-renowned British architect said in an interview with regional daily newspaper Midi Libre.

Like Concorde and the Channel Tunnel, the bridge is Franco-British.

French construction group Eiffage - that built the Eiffel Tower - financed the project in return for the right to collect receipts from a bridge toll for 75 years.


The bridge is now a source of pride for Millau, which believes many more tourists will come to admire one of the engineering wonders of the 21st Century, our correspondent says.

The construction also removes a bottleneck at the town, completing a new motorway link between Paris and the Mediterranean.

The construction of the steel bridge - now weighing about 36,000 tonnes - began in December 2001, using innovative techniques.

From the north and south sides of the valley, the metal sections of the structure were assembled, lifted slightly and then carefully slotted into place on each of the supporting pillars.

Motorists are expected to pay 4.6 euros (£3.18; $5.60) for a trip across the bridge.

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Registered: Mar 2004
Location: USA
Posts: 24302

*adds this to his list of places NOT to be during an earthquake.*

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Registered: Mar 2004
Location: Behind this monitor.
Posts: 6444

quote:

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"The bridge is just on the clouds," Millau Mayor Jacques Godfrain told the BBC's World Today programme.

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Registered: Aug 2000
Location: b0ulder
Posts: 5126

Don't French bridges get destroyed in war?

It's pretty spectacular.

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Registered: Jan 2001
Location: Zion
Posts: 4444

A new place to kill myself. YAY!

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Registered: Sep 2000
Location: atlanta
Posts: 6346

very cool. i imagine it'd be quite an experience to drive across.

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Registered: Jan 2001
Location: library
Posts: 19562

Very pretty, should be good for lots of photos if nothing else.

-m

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Registered: Jul 2001
Location: NYC
Posts: 11769

Millau's claim to fame is no longer José Bové.

(The McDonalds smashing anti-globalization nut).

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Registered: Oct 2001
Location:
Posts: 17889

no way jose would I drive across that. that shit gives me the creeps. the bridge across the Mississippi at Memphis is about as much as I can handle. I'd get vertigo on that and think I was fallin off the planet.

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Registered: Apr 2004
Location: Den
Posts: 10974

Did anyone notice that it looks horrible in that environment? Like someone sprayed white paint on a landscape painting.
And it's top-heavy. I don't like top-heavy things.
Not to mention that the valley will now be filled with noisy, polluting morons.

*polishes halo*

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Registered: Aug 2000
Location: b0ulder
Posts: 5126

It doesn't look that bad.

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Registered: Jul 2001
Location: NYC
Posts: 11769

quote:

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Originally posted by Coincidence
Not to mention that the valley will now be filled with noisy, polluting morons.

*polishes halo*

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Registered: Aug 2001
Location: Land of Entrapment
Posts: 660

It cuts driving time to the coast by 4 hours which is pretty amazing for a single bridge. Also it was built with supposedly private funds. The owners get to charge a toll for the next 75 years..

What I'm wondering is how long it will take for someone to commit suicide off of it, how long until someone BASE jumps it and how long until someone bungees off it?

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Registered: Jul 2001
Location: NYC
Posts: 11769

I know someone who jumped off the Bosporus Bridge, but her jacket acted liked a parachute and fishermen grabbed her.

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Registered: Jan 2001
Location: here stupid!
Posts: 1907

yet another fine example of workmanship,
see what happens when you spend your countries money on your country rather than spending it destroying another country

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Registered: Jul 2000
Location: Erehwon
Posts: 7537

wtf?

are you actually a fucking engineer?

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Registered: Sep 2000
Location: atlanta
Posts: 6346

quote:

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Originally posted by Dreamengineer

see what happens when you spend your countries money on your country rather than spending it destroying another country

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Registered: Jul 2001
Location: NYC
Posts: 11769

Don't worry, our great-grandkids will pay for the new one we're building now.

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Registered: May 2003
Location: N. Texas
Posts: 3363

quote:

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Originally posted by Coincidence
Did anyone notice that it looks horrible in that environment? Like someone sprayed white paint on a landscape painting.
And it's top-heavy. I don't like top-heavy things.
Not to mention that the valley will now be filled with noisy, polluting morons....

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Registered: Aug 2000
Location: Veerheenyah
Posts: 3285

I'm with mugtoe on this one. No Fucking Way I'd drive over that thing.

Reminds me of a dream I had one time about a really really really high overpass thing that scared the shit out of me.

And that fog.... it sounds like, from the article, that the fog is a normal, everyday occurance. So what happens when you're driving along and you come to that big stretch of bridge that you can't even see because the fog is so thick? No thank you.

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Registered: Jul 2001
Location: NYC
Posts: 11769

I'm pretty scared of heights, but if it keeps me high above the French people, I'll take my chances on the bridge.

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Registered: Feb 2001
Location: Chicago, IL
Posts: 1742

quote:

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The bridge is now a source of pride for Millau, which believes many more tourists will come to admire one of the engineering wonders of the 21st Century, our correspondent says.

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Registered: Sep 2000
Location: atlanta
Posts: 6346

wouldn't the winds that high be a really big problem?

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Registered: Aug 2001
Location: Hilbert Space
Posts: 35561

It is still in a valley, it looks like. And it isn't really that high, just high for a bridge.

Last edited by Smug Git on 12-16-2004 at 12:00 AM

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