The Truly Innovative Oresund Bridge (Oresundsbron) Designed to Connect Sweden and Denmark

From: http://www.vivaboo.com/

Stretching across the Oresund Straight is the truly innovative 7,845 meter (25,738 foot) Oresund Bridge or as it’s locally referred to, the Oresundsbron. For locals or tourists looking to travel between Malmo, Sweden and Copenhagen, Denmark, without having to fly, the Oresund Bridge is the route to take.

Image By supermaskinen

But the Oresund Bridge is more than your typical bridge, it is a 4-lane highway as well as a 2-track railway. Every day thousands and thousands of vehicles cross the bridge. Between the vehicles and the trains that travel across the bridge, it is estimated 30-35 million people travel this route every year.

The Oresund Bridge is reportedly the longest road and rail bridge in all of Europe. Interestingly enough, part of the Oresund Bridge crossing is actually a tunnel and man-made island. So needless to say, quite a bit of construction and architectural masterminding was required to built the Oresund Bridge.

After about five years of construction the bridge finally opened mid-2000. On the Danish side, vehicles go through a 4 km (2.5 mile) tunnel and emerge from the tunnel to the man-made island at which point they are now at bridge level as they continue over to Sweden.

You may wonder why the bridge wasn’t built the same on both sides. Well, per reports, the bridge was built with the additional tunnel and island features so it would not interrupt air traffic at the nearby airport nor shipping traffic coming through the straight in either good or bad weather.

Image By Kristian M

Image By kajvin

Image By kajvin

Image By Håkan Dahlström

Image By mr • p

Image By jsthomasphotography

Image By Hardo

Image By arunjrk

Image By Samad Jee (Mirza Ghaalib MODE)

Image By Björnstar

Image By marcella bona

Image By comzeradd

Image By __Olga__

Image By Lauri Väin

Image By FromTheNorth

Image By Hardo

Image By Omsc7

Image By Hannes De Geest