Engineering Magic

[Quatchi]

WaterBridge in Germany .. What a feat!
Six years, 500 million euros, 918 meters long.......now this is engineering!

This is a channel-bridge over the River Elbe and joins the former East and West Germany , as part of the unification project.

It is located in the city of Magdeburg, near Berlin . The photo was taken on the day of inauguration.

I thought you guys would find this interesting. Here are the coordinates if anyone is interested.
52*13'51"N 11*42'05"E

[Curtis]

Amazing what they can do these days isn't it? It's Your Marine Highway, Literally.

[Nick]

That is amazing!! that must have taken a lot of concrete (and rebar) to hold the weight of all that water (and the ships). It would have taken a lot of work to ensure it stays reasonably level so it doesn't turn into a fast-moving river.

[Scott]

Cool. I think I've seen something like this before but a lot older. I just looked up a bit of information on it. Apparently it was in the planning stages and even some construction began before World War II. The war and division of Germany held it up for half a century. Finally completed in 2003.

[Mill Bay]

Hey...

this also jogged my memory as well so I went to my old book on structures:
"The Builders" by Nat-Geo to find what I remembered.

I don't want to hot-link so no pics, but check out the links to the Chirk and Pontcysyllte Aqueducts in Wrexham, Wales.

www.chirk.com/aqueduct.html

and for something similar but also completely different...

Check out the Charleroi-Brussels Canal and the Ronquières inclined plane, AKA the canal on wheels, which uses wheeled containers to move ships over a high-spot along the waterway.

www.gamber.net/cyclebel/Kanaal.htm

www.ping.be/~pin02722/Strepy.htm

[WettCoast]

Interesting...

With a small outlay of money we could build a canal to Calgary, and then have BCF start a brand new service to the Alberta city. This is a much more interesting idea then a bridge to Vancouver Island, eh!

[stvfishy]

wetcoastkidjst said:

Interesting...

With a small outlay of money we could build a canal to Calgary, and then have BCF start a brand new service to the Alberta city. This is a much more interesting idea then a bridge to Vancouver Island, eh!

LOL.
Actually, a few generations down the road - once all the oil is gone and the Americans dam up the Rocky Mountain Trench north towards the Columbia Icefields to insure thier supply of water and electricity - the Vancouver-Portland-Spokane-Cranbrook-Invemere-Jasper(turnoff)-Dawson Creek?+ route should be possible.