Saturday, June 25, 2011

Water Bridge in Germany

EVER SEEN A WATER BRIDGE?

Water Bridge in Germany... What a feat!
Six years, 500 million euros, 918 meters long.......now this is engineering!

This is a channel-bridge over the River Elbe and joins the former East and
West Germany, as part of the unification project. It is located in the city
of Magdeburg, near Berlin. The photo was taken on the day of inauguration.

To those who appreciate engineering projects

Water Bridge Germany

Taking six years to build and costing around half a billion euros, the massive undertaking will connect Berlin's inland harbor with the ports along the Rhine river. At the center of the project is Europe's longest water bridge measuring in just shy of a kilometer at 918 meters. The huge tub to transport ships over the Elbe took 24,000 metric tons of steel and 68,000 cubic meters of concrete to build.

The water bridge will enable river barges to avoid a lengthy and sometimes unreliable passage along the Elbe. Shipping can often come to a halt on the stretch if the river's water mark falls to unacceptably low levels.