From ancient viaducts to modern-day masterpieces, architecture critic Jonathan Glancey chooses the most spectacular structures from around the globe.
Millau Viaduct
On days when clouds form in the steep Tarn Valley in the south of France, the immensely high and remarkably slender concrete pylons – one of the seven is taller than the Eiffel Tower – are all that can be seen of the breathtaking Millau Viaduct from the surrounding hillsides.. The cable-stayed bridge, opened in 2004 to the designs of the French structural engineer Michel Virlogeaux and the British architect Norman Foster has streamlined long summer road journeys between Paris, Montpellier and the Spanish border. Where once traffic snarled to a halt in Millau, it now soars high above the town and river. Although the whole point of le Viaduc de Millau is to speed traffic across the Tarn Valley, it is a good idea to stop at the official viewing point and simply stare at this supremely elegant 21st Century bridge.
The visual marriage the lofty Cologne Cathedral’s stone engineering and the bold steel structure of the Hohenzollern Bridge is testimony to the way in which the great railway buildings of the era before World War I were the ‘cathedrals’ of the industrial age. Completed in 1911, the 409m bridge crosses the Rhine. Blown up by German engineers in March 1945 in an attempt to slow the Allied advance on Berlin, today the rebuilt bridge is the busiest on Germany’s rail network. Touchingly, its monumental steel structure – rather like the hump backs of great whales rising from the river – is adorned, along the fence between the pedestrian sidewalk and the railway tracks, with thousands of ‘love padlocks’ celebrating the relationships of many of the thousands of people who use the bridge to cross the Rhine each day. Scarred by war, the bridge has been transformed into an unexpected symbol of unity and love. Designed originally by the architect Franz Heinrich Schwechten, it was not, however, the pure engineering structure we see today: then, it was adorned with towering castle or cathedral-like gateways. Intriguingly, Schwechten who began his career designing railway stations, and then the Hohenzollern Bridge, went on to produce a number of memorable churches later in his career. Railways and religion were a marriage made in stone, steel and Cologne.
Forth Railway Bridge
The Forth Bridge is one of the wonders of the industrial age. A symbol of structural engineering at its innovative best, it appears on Scottish £20 notes and steals the scene in Alfred Hitchcock’s The 39 Steps (1935). Work began in 1882 to designs by John Fowler and Benjamin Baker on what was intended to be a highly visible improvement on the earlier Tay Bridge thatcollapsed in 1879 taking an express train and its passengers to a watery grave. The main body of the bridge comprises three gigantic, cage-like cantilevers rising from granite footings set 46m below in the unforgiving Firth of Forth. Completed in 1890, this was Britain’s first major steel bridge and, although it has required a full-time maintenance team to look after it, its value remains undimmed. ‘Like painting the Forth Bridge’ has long been a popular term describing a never-ending task. In 2011, however, work was completed on a £130 million ($223 million) repaint designed to last until 2050, while plans have been drawn up for a visitors’ centre offering a walk up those daunting steel cantilevers.
Millau Viaduct
On days when clouds form in the steep Tarn Valley in the south of France, the immensely high and remarkably slender concrete pylons – one of the seven is taller than the Eiffel Tower – are all that can be seen of the breathtaking Millau Viaduct from the surrounding hillsides.. The cable-stayed bridge, opened in 2004 to the designs of the French structural engineer Michel Virlogeaux and the British architect Norman Foster has streamlined long summer road journeys between Paris, Montpellier and the Spanish border. Where once traffic snarled to a halt in Millau, it now soars high above the town and river. Although the whole point of le Viaduc de Millau is to speed traffic across the Tarn Valley, it is a good idea to stop at the official viewing point and simply stare at this supremely elegant 21st Century bridge.The visual marriage the lofty Cologne Cathedral’s stone engineering and the bold steel structure of the Hohenzollern Bridge is testimony to the way in which the great railway buildings of the era before World War I were the ‘cathedrals’ of the industrial age. Completed in 1911, the 409m bridge crosses the Rhine. Blown up by German engineers in March 1945 in an attempt to slow the Allied advance on Berlin, today the rebuilt bridge is the busiest on Germany’s rail network. Touchingly, its monumental steel structure – rather like the hump backs of great whales rising from the river – is adorned, along the fence between the pedestrian sidewalk and the railway tracks, with thousands of ‘love padlocks’ celebrating the relationships of many of the thousands of people who use the bridge to cross the Rhine each day. Scarred by war, the bridge has been transformed into an unexpected symbol of unity and love. Designed originally by the architect Franz Heinrich Schwechten, it was not, however, the pure engineering structure we see today: then, it was adorned with towering castle or cathedral-like gateways. Intriguingly, Schwechten who began his career designing railway stations, and then the Hohenzollern Bridge, went on to produce a number of memorable churches later in his career. Railways and religion were a marriage made in stone, steel and Cologne.Forth Railway Bridge
The Forth Bridge is one of the wonders of the industrial age. A symbol of structural engineering at its innovative best, it appears on Scottish £20 notes and steals the scene in Alfred Hitchcock’s The 39 Steps (1935). Work began in 1882 to designs by John Fowler and Benjamin Baker on what was intended to be a highly visible improvement on the earlier Tay Bridge thatcollapsed in 1879 taking an express train and its passengers to a watery grave. The main body of the bridge comprises three gigantic, cage-like cantilevers rising from granite footings set 46m below in the unforgiving Firth of Forth. Completed in 1890, this was Britain’s first major steel bridge and, although it has required a full-time maintenance team to look after it, its value remains undimmed. ‘Like painting the Forth Bridge’ has long been a popular term describing a never-ending task. In 2011, however, work was completed on a £130 million ($223 million) repaint designed to last until 2050, while plans have been drawn up for a visitors’ centre offering a walk up those daunting steel cantilevers.
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