Oct 01 2008
Viaduc de Millau
This month’s header image is of the Viaduc de Millau, an amazing feat of engineering. The bridge opened on 14 December 2004, spanning the valley of the River Tarn outside the town of Millau, Aveyron. It’s on the A75 autoroute (which runs from Paris to Béziers) and now saves motorists a lengthy journey down the valley around the town and back up the valley, which caused huge bottlenecks during the holiday season.
The bridge is 1.5 miles long and the road is 280m above the River Tarn. Construction of the bridge started in October 2001, so took about 3 years to build. The best thing though is that the bridge was designed by a British architect, Norman Foster (who also designed the Millennium Bridge in London), along with French structural engineer, Michel Virlogeux.
I’ve yet to drive over the bridge but hope to do so one day, it looks like it’s well worth the visit. I bet the views are amazing!
There’s plenty more information on the web about the bridge which you can find in these links:
Le Viaduc de Millau - official site (in French)
Structurae - shows hundreds of images of the bridge and in the construction phase
I’ve heard from friends traveling abroad that this bridge is a must-see. I also found a post on the new Peterman’s Eye Travel about this bridge and I thought I’d share…
http://www.petermanseye.com/travel
Cheers!