Please don't forget Pons Fabricius in Rome, dating from 62 BC and still servicable! See http://www.pbase.com/image/17882410 and http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Gazetteer/Places/Europe/Italy/Lazio/Roma/Rome/_Texts/PLATOP*/Pons_Fabricius.html for views and info.

Where is that confounded bridge?

LONDON BRIFGE IS FALLING DOWN FALLING DOWN FALING DOWN LONDON BRIDGE IS FALLING DOWN MY FAIR LADY i understand that the origional london bridge was built long before the one that was rebuilt in ARIZONA was built

Funny story about Tower Bridge (OK, funny-ish). I was visiting friends living south of the river and needed directions to Elephant and Castle. I had a girl in the car so I gave her my phone so she could call our friends and guide us there. She was given the following direction:

'OK, cross the river at Tower Bridge and get in the left hand lane.'

To which she replied:

'How will we know when we've crossed the bridge?'

It's my own fault, I suppose for trusting women to guide me through one of the world's busiest cities. I later equaled her for stupidity by driving onto the emergency lane in the middle of a busy roundabout by accident.

A Bridge to the Past

Gomen, no contest. Kintai Bridge is it for me. Been so long am not sure, but think I was recruit at Parris Island SC in 1673. Centuries later as F-4 pilot in Iwakuni I lovingly barfed on this bridge many a Sat. morn sobering up while being attended by cute josan from T Harry`s (officers only) club whose only concern was my health & NOT the 1000 yen note taped to my forehead... Cherry Blossom season next to Kintai gave rise to arousals that I could never seem to duplicate under Cherry Blossoms in Wash, D.C.?

/s/ murderous, barbaric, mongol-like, killing machine, retard, support our troops bullet magnet, gyrene

Do you have some kind of prejudice against bridges built to carry water? Of course not. You just temporarily forgot that the two most famous and beautiful old bridges on earth, both stellar examples of Roman engineering, are the Aqueduct of Segovia in Spain and the Pont du Gard in France.

I'm sure you were just about to post an update.

What about natural bridges such as those found in Arches National Park (Rainbow Arch)?

Or if we're talking man-made structures, what about the Brooklyn Bridge. I know you already mentioned Roebling's Cincy bridge, but the Brooklyn bridge was such a huge advance in technology, not to mention beauty, that it is worth a second take.

There are also dozens of covered bridges throughout New England that are worth a second look.

Sorry, I gave the wrong link for the Aqueduct of Segovia.

Admittedly, this structure does not cross water, but it still spans a valley and sure looks like a bridge to me.

The Italians are building a bridge between Sicily and the mainland.

The Italians are building a bridge between Sicily and the mainland.

Then the Italians will build another bridge to return.

*ba dum bum!

I'm here all weekend. Try the veal.

What about the Forth Rail Bridge, the first large-scale cantilever bridge in the world? To travel across this in a train is a real experience. It's vast.

That last was me, since Ace's 'remember personal info' thingumajig doesn't seem to work with my archaic combination of Mandriva 2005 and Firefox 1.0.7.

What's next, Dr. Symes, your favorite highway rest stops?

Lighthouses?

Craters?

Oddly shaped rocks?

Ancient Mayan plumbing?

My understanding is that the Swiss Re tower is known as the "Gherkin" in London. As for me, I think it looks like a giant dildo.

You could hardly write a short list of the world's most beautiful bridges without mentioning the Charles Bridge (Karluv most) in Prague.

This one doesn't really count, but it's still my fave.

Aerial view. (upper right)

Swlip: Yeah, I know people talk about that Prague bridge, but frankly, I don't see it. Take away those statues and its just... every single bridge ever.

Statues are a cheat. You take a couple Van Goghs and hand them on the Tappan Zee and what? Wow, what a gorgeous bridge that Tappan Zee! And sooo romantic.

Michael: Aquaducts? You come round here talking aquaducts? The day I put one of those sluices-putting-on-airs on a web page with the Kintai... well, ain't gonna happen. Screw aquaducts.

Yeah, I said it. Screw Aquaducts!

Anyway, Ace, aside from overlooking the bridges that carry aquaducts, I think this is a really original and creative series. Keep up the good work, Ace!

You're playing a dangerous game, Butters.

As for me, I think it looks like a giant dildo.

My vote for the premier architectural dildo in North America goes to the Liberty Memorial in Kansas City. It's the major WWI memorial in the U.S. Go to the link and scan the web cam up that ribbed shaft, if you dare. At night, it ejaculates steam from the tip that is suitably lit in red for all to admire. I recently had a hotel room that faced this thing. Quite an experience.

You're playing a dangerous game, Butters.

My name isn't Butters. Nobody calls me Butters.

Oh wait . . .

*Michael thinks it over*

*Michael decides to shut up*

To give it its due, the Swiss Re building (or 30 St Mary Axe London EC3A 8EP, if we're being finicky), is popularly known as the erotic gherkin, thereby doing double duty as hot dog side dish and sexual plaything.

Brooklyn.

You guys can all bite the big one.

By my standards, the greatest bridge in the world is the George Washington Bridge (GWB). It is the busiest, it is the most profitable. That should end it right there, but there's more.

When Othmar Ammann, who by the way was the greatest bridge builder in history 9see below) it was twice as long as the previous longest span. By comparison, the Golden Gate was less than 25% longer than the GWB and was based on a discarded design that Ammann had proposed but his clients discarded (the art deco design). The GWB was built with one deck and a second one added thirty years later; it could carry a third deck if there were any room in Manhattan to put the highways.

Ammann designed the six longest bridges in New York City, including two that held the title as longest in the world, the GWB and the Verrazano Narrows Bridge. Those were his first and last, designed 50 years apart.

Dr. Symes:

Yeah, I know people talk about that Prague bridge, but frankly, I don't see it. Take away those statues and its just... every single bridge ever.

The statue don't add as much as the towers that sit at each end.

That, and the fact that the bridge was built in the 14th century.

But other than that? Yeah, you're right. It's just like every other bridge.

P.S. You could argue that the towers are not a structural component of the bridge, but that would not be correct. They served a defensive function in their day.

I bet Wikipedia is full of shit. Wouldn't it make more sense that "bankrupt" came from the idea that if you had no money, you're bank was rupt(ured)?

swlip: oooh, towers you say? AND its old? Well then I... sorry, it's still ass.

Historical fact: The king of Prague erected it as a joke, a way to test his subjects.

He'd have a reception, and ask guests what they thought of it. If they said they liked it, he'd nod along, but, when they left, he'd pull his shirt away from his chest,imitating like he had breasts, then in a high high he'd squeal: "I'm a little girl, I like the Charles Bridge. Won't you come to my tea party?" He and the queen would laugh and laugh. Then later, he'd dispatch his men to kill the unfortunate subject.

Ask a historian. The bridge sucks.

No, Mark V, Wikipedia is not full of shit on this one. The word bank comes from "banco", which is the word in Italian and Spanish for "bench". The money lending in medieval Italy was conducted on a bench. Thus "banca rota" is the word in Spanish and Italian for bankruptcy and literally means "broken bench".

Dr. Symes:

Okay, if you say so.

I'll have you know that you just shot down some of my most cherished memories. {sniff}

Nah, that Swiss Re thing looks like a giant suppository.

I'm surprised that you could discuss bridges and not mention St. Petersburg (Russia, that is, not Florida). The city is built over a series of canals, so to go from nearly anywhere to anywhere else involves crossing a bridge. There may be no single bridge in St. Petersburg that makes your list, but in the aggregate, they are quite an achievement.

There may be no single bridge in St. Petersburg that makes your list, but in the aggregate, they are quite an achievement.

That's also true for my butt zits.

The high-level walkways between the towers gained an unpleasant reputation as a haunt for prostitutes and pickpockets and were closed in 1910. They have now been reopened as part of the Tower Bridge Experience

It I ever make it to London, that's the first place I'm goin'. Well, maybe first to a pub. Then maybe to whisper to one of the Palace guards about how I'm going to visit his sister on the walkways. But then . . .

Roebling's next project after Cincy was in Waco Texas.

Aqueducts aren't bridges by your standards? BITE ME.

First time reading this blog, just wanted to say hi.