The Great Belt Bridge and Tunnel

The Great Belt Bridge is the World's second longest suspension bridge, with a span of 1,624 meters - only exceeded by a bridge in Japan.

The pylons are 254 meters high, and the bridge sections are placed 75 meters above the surface of the sea. Each bridge section weighs 1,000 tons, and the 2.7 kilometers of road between the two anchors is put together of 57 such bridge sections.

The pylons are 26 meters higher than those of the Golden Gate bridge in San Francisco in the USA, which for more than 50 years has been the record holder. The main cables are 85 centimeters in diameter, and are spun by 18,648 threads, which are themselves 5 millimeters in diameter.

The Great Belt bridge is actually two bridges - an Eastern and a Western section, split by the island Sprogø. It's usually the Eastern one you see pictures of, as the Western one is a rather dull looking anonymous bridge, much like you normally find eg. across a valley - only a great deal longer. The Eastern bridge is the "pretty" one, spanning the deepest part of Storebælt with the suspension bridge.

The pictures above are a rare treat. Not only because they are so realistic (rain), but because they have been taken from Sprogø, the island between the Eastern and the Western part of the bridge. To celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Danish constitution on June 5th. 1999, the otherwize closed island was opened to visitors on that day only. This was taken advantage of in the taking of these pictures.

This is a recent pictures of the East part of the Great Belt Bridge, the suspension bridge, taken in late April 2006.

The East section of the bridge is for car traffic only. The train tunnels are for - trains. Since June 1, 1997, all train traffic between Zealand and the Western part of Denmark has been going through the tunnels. This has cut the travel time across the Great Belt from one hour to seven minutes!