The Viaduct de Millau in France is an exceptional work of engineering and probably scary to drive over, at least for me. I could ride across it with a good driver I trust and enjoy the view. Check out these sites about it
HERE and
HERE. Have you seen it or driven on it, Oxy?
The Millau Viaduct is part of the new E11 expressway connecting Paris and Barcelona and features the highest bridge piers ever constructed. The tallest is 240 meters (787 feet) high and the overall height is an impressive 336 meters (1102 feet), making this the highest bridge in the world. It is taller than the Eiffel Tower.
Intriguingly, the Millau Viaduct is not straight. A straight road could induce a sensation of floating for drivers, which a slight curve remedies. The curve
is 20km in range. Moreover, the road has a light incline of 3% to improve the visibility and reassure the driver. It is an amazing engineering feat!
12 comments:
Joy, I haven't been there - yet! It looks tres magnifigue! I would like to drive there though. Must persuade my wife that the Chunnel is not leaky!
Looks scary! And is it difficult to breathe at that altitude?
"Moreover, the road has a light incline of 3% to improve the visibility and reassure the driver."
In both directions? Seems like reassurance one way would become unease going the other way. It *is* beautiful, though...
Pretty.
Bridges don't scare me though.
Well, Todd Bridges from TVs Different Strokes does but that's another story for another day!
Wow. Very cool!
HELL NO! I do not like being in a car going over bridges. not driving, not riding. No way, no how.
I've seen the pps, Pseudonymph. It's awesome. Now, I'd like to walk it. That would be scary. As long as somebody was at the other side waiting for me, I guess I wouldn't want to walk that twice. And as Debi said, the 3% incline worries me. Is it because more traffic is going one way, and they get a 'tilt'?
BTW, I cured my fear of heights in 1998 doing a Y2K job at a prison in Milwaukee County, Wisconsin.
Amazing what humans can do!
Great post Auntie! I hadn't heard of this but it is fastanating! I would love to see it but I have a terrible fear of driving over really tall bridges, so someone else may have to drive!
Maddie, we can sit in the back seat drinking (wine for me and we know what for you) while someone drives us across that bridge. We'll wave to Oxy while he's walking.
Good point about that incline Debi and Oxy. Hmmm. That's like those stories of walking uphill both ways to school my father used to tell me.
I went across the Channel on one of those ferries and think I'd like to try the Chunnel.
I was OK about the Chunnel after I found out there were trains and no driving through it. With the Brits driving on the left and the French on the right, I couldn't figure out how they'd work that out.
my students loves their crackberries
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