12. Kawazu-Nanadaru Loop Bridge, Japan
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| Kawazu-Nanadaru Loop Bridge photo source |
The Kawazu-Nanadaru Loop Bridge consists of two spirals, each 1.1 km long,
80-meter in diameter - the only way for traffic to get down the
mountainside into the valley, too steep for any other usual
road-building solutions.
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The
busy Route 414 serves the weekend crowd from Tokyo, intent to wind down
at the hot springs resort of the Izu Peninsula. The "winding down" bit
obviously starts at this bridge. Built in 1981, the double-spiral structure demands careful driving - the speed limit on the bridge is only 30 km/h, which also helps to better enjoy the views.
11. Hureai Bridge, Japan
This unique circular pedestrian bridge is located at the foot of the Hiyoshi dam near Kyoto, Japan.
It is part of Hiyoshi Spring spa resort and was designed by Japanese
architect Norihiko Dan, who also planned the landscaping of the spa
resort and park.
Built in 1998 the bridge known as 'Friendship Bridge' has a diameter of 80 metres.
10. Wind-Rain Bridge, China
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10. Wind-Rain Bridge, China
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| Chengyang Wind-Rain Bridge photo source |
The Chengyang Bridge or Chengyang Wind-Rain Bridge, Liuzhou, Guangxi Province (very north of Guangzi), People's Republic of China. It's in Dong Minority Region. It's
a special covered bridge and one of Fengyu Bridges (a special bridge
type in local Dong Minority Region). It was completed in 1916. It has
many other names including Yongji Bridge and Panlong Bridge.
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The
bridge is a perfect combination of painting, bridge, corridor, veranda
and Chinese pavilion. It has two platforms (at the two ends of the
bridge), 3 piers, and 4 spans, 5 pavilions, 19 verandas, and three floors.
The piers are made of stone, the upper structures are mainly wooden,
and the roofs are covered with tiles. The bridge has wooden handrails on
both sides.The bridge has a total length of 64.4 meters, and its corridor has a width of 3.4 meters. The net height above the river is about 10 meters.
9. Ponte Vecchio, Italy
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The Ponte Vecchio is a Medieval bridge over the Arno River, in Florence, Italy, noted for still having shops built along
it, as was once common. Butchers initially occupied the shops; the
present tenants are jewellers, art dealers and souvenir sellers. It has
been described as Europe's oldest wholly-stone, closed-spandrel
segmental arch bridge, but there are far older segmental arch bridges
such as Alconétar Bridge.
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The bridge first appears in a document of 996.The bridge consists of three segmental arches: the main arch has a span of 30 meters (98 ft)
the two side arches each span 27 meters (88 ft). The rise of the arches
is between 3.5 and 4.4 meters (11½ to 14½ feet), and the span-to-rise
ratio 5:1.
8. Langkawi Sky Bridge, Malaysia
8. Langkawi Sky Bridge, Malaysia
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The Langkawi sky-bridge in Malaysia offer magnificent views of the Andaman Sea and Thailand’s Tarutao Island.
The Andaman Sea and Thailand’s Tarutao Island can be seen in the
distance. Platforms at each end allow the visitors to take a breather
before venturing across. There are also signs telling visitors to get
off the bridge quickly in the event of an electrical storm.
7. Aiola Island Bridge, Austria
7. Aiola Island Bridge, Austria
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Located in the center of the Mur river in Graz, Austria,
it has a sunbathing area, a trendy bar and a coffee house. Aiola Island
Bridge is a unique offering of coolest bridge cum bar. Known as ‘Aiola Island’, it is positioned right in the heart of the Mur River in Graz, Austria. The island was built in 2003 by a New-York based artist Vito Acconci.
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| Aiola island-bridge bar in Austria photo source |
This exclusive installed masterpiece got the deserving attention within months. It features a sunbathing area, fashionable bar and a coffee house and also allows you an access to cross the Mur river from one shore to other. I haven’t come such an elite masterpiece before.
6. Tianjin Eye bridge, China
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It
is a gigantic Ferris wheel built on Yongle Bridge over the Haihe river.
It can lift people 120m up into the air. Tianjin Eye is a 120m-tall (110m-diameter) Ferris
wheel built on the Chihai Bridge over the Hai River in Tianjin, China.
It is claimed to be the only such wheel to have been constructed over a
bridge.
Construction
started in 2007 (main body completed on 2008-Dec-18) and it opened to
the public in on 2008-Apr-07. The electric-powered wheel has 48
capsules, each with a capacity of 8 passengers, and takes 30 minutes to
complete a rotation, giving a capacity of 768 passengers per hour.
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| Tianjin Eye at night photo source |
At
the time of construction, only the 135m London Eye and 160 m Star of
Nanchang were taller, however even larger wheels have since been built,
including the 165m Singapore Flyer, and the 185m Great Berlin Wheel and
208m Beijing Great Wheel are under construction.
5. Henderson Waves, Singapore
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| photo source |
At a height of 36 meters or 12 storeys from the road, it's the highest pedestrian bridge in Singapore. Henderson Waves is a 274-metre (900 ft) long
pedestrian bridge. At 36 metres (120 ft) above Henderson Road, it is
the highest pedestrian bridge in Singapore. It connects Mount Faber Park
and Telok Blangah Hill Park.
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| Henderson Waves at night photo source |
The
bridge has a wave-form made up of seven undulating curved steel ribs
that alternately rise over and under its deck. The curved ribs form
alcoves that function as shelters with seats within. Slats of yellow
balau wood, an all-weather timber found in South-East Asia, are used in
the decking. The wave-forms are lit with LED light at night from 7pm to 2am daily.
4.Tokyo Bay Aqua-Line, Japan
The Tokyo Bay Aqua-Line, also known as the Trans-Tokyo Bay Highway, is a bridge-tunnel combination across Tokyo Bay in Japan.
It connects the city of Kawasaki in Kanagawa Prefecture with the city
of Kisarazu in Chiba Prefecture, and forms part of National Route 409.
With an overall length of 14 km, it includes a 4.4 km bridge and 9.6 km
tunnel underneath the bay—the fourth-longest underwater tunnel in the
world.
At the bridge-tunnel crossover point, there is an artificial island called Umihotaru with a rest area consisting of restaurants, shops and amusement facilities.
Air is supplied to the tunnel by a distinctive tower in the middle of
the tunnel, called the Kaze no Tō, which uses the bay's almost-constant
winds as a power source. The road opened on December 18, 1997 after 31 years of construction at a cost of 11.2 billion USD at the time of opening. The Tokyo Bay Aqua-Line reduced the drive between Chiba and Kanagawa, two important industrial regions, from 90 to 15 minutes.
3. Falkirk Wheel, Scotland
It restored navigability across Scotland on the historic Forth & Clyde Canal and Union Chanal. The Falkirk Wheel is a rotating boat lift
connecting the Forth and Clyde Canal with the Union Canal. It is named
after the nearby town of Falkirk in central Scotland. The two canals
were previously connected by a series of 11 locks, but by the 1930s
these had fallen into disuse, were filled in and the land built upon.
4.Tokyo Bay Aqua-Line, Japan
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3. Falkirk Wheel, Scotland
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The Millennium Commission decided to regenerate the canals of central Scotland to connect Glasgow with Edinburgh
once more. Designs were submitted for a lock to link the canals, with
the Falkirk Wheel design winning. As with many Millennium Commission
projects the site includes a visitors' centre containing a shop, café
and exhibition centre.
Falkirk Wheel at work (video below):
2. Banpo Bridge, South Korea
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The Banpo Bridge is a major bridge in downtown Seoul
over the Han River, South Korea, connecting the Seocho and Yongsan
districts. Banpo Bridge is on top of Jamsu Bridge, forming a "double deck" bridge.
When the water level rises too high, the Jamsu Bridge becomes covered
with water and gets closed off. The lower deck incorporates pedestrian
and bicycle paths that provide easy access to the Banpo Hangang Park
from the north side of the river. Banpo Bridge is a girder bridge and
was completed in 1982.
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The bridge has 38 water pumps and 380 nozzles on either side, which draw 190 tons of water per minute from the river 20 meters below the deck, and shoots as far as 43 meters horizontally.
Bridge - Fountain at work (video below):
1.Magdeburg Water Bridge, Germany
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The Germans took over 80 years to build this 918m bridge over Elbe river near the town of Magdeburg. Canal
engineers had first conceived of joining the two waterways as far back
as 1919, and by 1938 the Rothensee boat lift and bridge anchors were in
place, but construction was postponed during World War II. After the
Cold War split Germany, the project was put on hold indefinitely by the
East German government.
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