Yes, I am talking about traveling in a bus and seeing the clouds below and a clear night-sky above. Fascinating? Yes it was. I remember, it was around 2:30 in the night on our way back from Barcelona to Paris, when the voice of one of the university professors (who were accompanying us on this trip) woke us up. While rubbing my eyes, I heard her say on the internal speaker phone, "Students! You wouldn't want to miss the sight outside". I looked out the window. And she was so right! The sight was simply amazing. We were riding above the clouds and below them we could see the lights from a city far away. Where were we? We were crossing the world's tallest bridge! Covered in clouds, lit up with powerful axial lights, "Millau Viaduct" was a breathtaking structure to look at.
After spending 3 full days of tourism in Barcelona all of us were so tired that not even the uncomfortable bus seats could keep us from falling asleep. But the moment I saw this amazing sight, all my sleep was gone. Apparently others too felt no less enthusiastic. And then came the barrage of questions from the students and replies from the well-prepared patrons of our university trip. Let me share some of that info with you. We were told that before the bridge was constructed, traffic had to descend into the Tarn River valley and pass near the town of Millau, causing heavy congestion at the beginning and end of the July and August vacation season. The construction of the bridge has created an alternate preffered road route between Paris (France) and Barcelona (Spain).
Our trip-organisers requested the driver to traverse the bridge slowly so that we could take photos and even showed us photos of the bridge taken during the day-time. I must admit that with its concrete and steel pillars soaring high above the low clouds over the Tarn Valley, the construction makes a spectacular sight (photo above). The Millau Viaduct (French: le Viaduc de Millau) is a cable-stayed type road-bridge that spans the valley of the River Tarn near Millau in the Massif Central mountains in southern France. A Viaduct is a bridge made of a series of similar spans. Designed by English architect Norman Foster and French bridge engineer Michel Virlogeux, it is the tallest vehicular bridge in the world. At 343 metres, it is even taller than the Eiffel Tower and only 38 m shorter than the Empire State Building. The total length of the roadway is 2.4 Km and an estimated 10,000 - 25,000 vehicles cross it daily. The bridge was built by Eiffage, the same company that built the Eiffel Tower. The architect, Norman Foster, said the bridge was designed to have the "delicacy of a butterfly". "A work of man must fuse with nature. The pillars had to look almost organic, like they had grown from the earth," he said in an interview with regional daily newspaper Midi Libre.
Construction began in October 2001 and completion was formally celebrated on 14th December 2004 and it was opened to traffic two days later. The bridge’s construction broke three world records: The highest piles (pillars) in the world, the highest masts in the world and the highest road-bridge deck in the world. The bridge's construction cost EUR 394 million, with the toll plaza costing an additional EUR 20 million. The builders, Eiffage, financed the construction in return for a concession to collect the tolls for 75 years, until 2080. The bridge has 30km of high-current cables running through it and over 20km of fiber optic cables connecting a multitude of sensors in the piles, deck, masts and the stays. These next-gen sensors are designed to detect the slightest movement of the bridge in high winds and to measure its resistance to wear-and-tear over time.
Usually closed to pedestrians, on May 13th this year [2007], nearly 10,000 runners were allowed to traverse the bridge (twice) during a regional marathon which started from "Place de Mandarous", in the centre of Millau city, ran till the southern end of the Viaduct and back and ended at the point where it started.
P.S> I can't wait to bungy off this one. I am wishing that they allow that soon.
News: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4091813.stm
Photo: Paris Friends -- in Barcelona ...
