Bridge to nowhere

A bridge to nowhere is a bridge where one or both ends are broken, incomplete, or unconnected to any roads. If it is an overpass or an interchange, the term overpass to nowhere or interchange to nowhere may be used, respectively.[2][3] There are four main origins for these bridges:

  • The bridge was never completed for reasons such as cost or disputed property rights.
  • One or both of the bridge's ends have collapsed or have been destroyed – e.g., by earthquake, storm, flood, or war.
  • The bridge is no longer used, but was not demolished because of the cost; for example, the bridges on an abandoned railway line.
  • The bridge is completed, but the streets connecting the bridge are not completed.
A highway bridge near Castrop-Rauxel, Germany – built 1978 but not connected on either end
An overpass to nowhere in Summit, New Jersey: Brantwood Terrace Overpass,[1] walled off on both ends
A former railway bridge over the Váci út in Újpest, Budapest, Hungary – with its rail line defunct in the early '90s, the cityside approach of the bridge was demolished to create space for construction.

Further, the term "bridge to nowhere" may be used by political opponents to describe a bridge (or proposed bridge) that serves low-population areas at high cost, a symbol of pork barrel spending.[4]

Incomplete and damaged bridges

Argentina

  • The two-lane elevated concrete vehicle bridge across the Cosquin River in Cosquin, province of Cordoba, Argentina, that was intended to connect Calle Pedro Ortiz, on the west, to Avenida Capitan Aviador Omar Castillo, on the east, was never opened. The span of the bridge itself is complete, but it was never connected to the road system on either end, so the ends of the span are blocked by steep piles of rubble. In lieu of the elevated vehicle bridge, the small, low Onofre Marimon Bridge connects the two streets for small volumes of pedestrian traffic. The bridges may be seen on Google Earth at https://goo.gl/maps/23X4DpGTBMWWZwHaA.

Belgium

  • Rue Emile Pathé/Emile Pathéstraat in Forest/Vorst, Brussels (50.7996°N 4.3067°E / 50.7996; 4.3067), was originally intended to be part of the southern arc of the R0 Brussels motorway ring, which was never built owing to opposition from local residents. It now functions mostly as a car park.

Canada

  • Port Nelson Bridge, an isolated rail bridge located near Port Nelson, Manitoba. The connecting rail line was never finished due to labour and material shortages, a lack of financial or political support, and high cost. The envisioned port was also a poor design and was found to require excessive dredging due to significant sand bars. The project was greatly criticized by several politicians, the media (calling it a "gigantic blunder"), and even the project's chief engineer.[5]

China

Czech Republic

  • The Borovsko Bridge, an unfinished motorway bridge from 1930s near Borovsko, part of Bernartice municipality, Central Bohemian Region.
  • There are several bridges to nowhere, started to be built as a part of extraterritorial highway Vienna-Wrocław (so-called "Hitler's highway"), which remain unfinished and unconnected to the road network.

France

Germany

Soda-Brücke Euskirchen

The colloquial name for a bridge to nowhere in Germany is "Soda-Brücke" (a pun on "so da" = "just there"). Many of the bridges were built in the 1970s as part of the Autobahn network, but the oil crisis and rising environmental consciousness slowed many highway extensions.

Hungary

  • A former railway bridge sits over the Váci út in Budapest. Its rail line was disconnected in the early 90s, and the east side of the bridge was demolished to make room for new construction. (47.554984°N 19.075610°E / 47.554984; 19.075610) A second bridge sits over a minor road on the same rail line to the southwest, and the former station is now a parking lot.

India

Indonesia

Italy

New Zealand

Norway

  • Eintveit Bridge, a 25-metre-long two-lane road bridge in Etne municipality in Hordaland county, was completed in 1962 and was intended to be part of a road on the northwestern side of Åkrafjorden. But the road was never built, and the bridge has remained unused except occasionally by hikers. In 2014 broadcaster NRK organized the "opening" of the bridge. Two cars were flown in by helicopter and then drove across the bridge.[8][9]

Philippines

  • The Loboc Bridge in the town of Loboc, Bohol. A steel and concrete bridge which commenced construction in the 1970s but was left unfinished allegedly due to opposition from the Loboc parishioners since the bridge might destroy the 400-year old Loboc Church.[10]

Poland

near Lisowo, demolished 2019
  • Several structures on unfinished Olimpijka motorway. Its construction started in 1976 with the propaganda goal of completing it in time for the Moscow Olympics in 1980 (hence its unofficial name, as part of Berlin-Moscow connection). Because of the economic crisis which hit the country in the late 1970s and continued throughout the 1980s, only a small section was opened. Construction of another stretch resumed only in 2001, as a part of A2 motorway. Since 2010 the plan was to finish the whole link between the border with Germany and Warsaw, this time for the UEFA Euro 2012 football championships. This meant that weathered remains of 1970s structures had to be demolished in the 2010s.
  • Several structures on unfinished Berlinka, Nazi Germany's Reichsautobahn Berlin-Königsberg started in 1936. Some of them have been demolished as late as the 2010s.

Russia

The bridge of Vachevskaya Street in Pavlovsky Posad
  • A two-lane vehicle bridge in Pavlovsky Posad, completed in 2011, continues the minor Vachevskaya Street in the west across the Vokhna River. In the east, there is a dead end, as no vehicle road has been built there, with only a footpath branching off to another street. The bridge may become integrated into traffic once a new road tunnel under railway is completed nearby, and together they would replace a problematic level crossing.[11] The bridge was open for vehicle traffic in July 2015.[12]
The bridge in Porozovo

Slovakia

  • Viaduct in Kopráš, a never-used railway viaduct in the village of Kopráš near the town of Jelšava in south Slovakia. The viaduct is 120 m long and 40 m high. It was finished in 1945 but was never used, because the railway to the viaduct was never completed due to the events of World War II.[13] Next to the viaduct are two finished tunnels without any connection to railways. The tunnel near the village of Slavošovce is 2800 m long, and the tunnel near Kopráš is 350 m long. These tunnels to nowhere were also never used, because railway construction ended in 1948 before its completion.[14]

Spain

Taiwan

England

Scotland

  • M8 Bridge to Nowhere, two separate bridges over the M8 motorway in Glasgow: one eventually had an office block constructed on it; the other, originally built in the 1970s, remained unfinished until July 2013.

United States

  • Arboretum "ghost ramps" (built 1960s), a set of ramps and bridges south of Marsh Island near Portage Bay in Seattle that were intended to be an interchange from Washington State Route 520 and the proposed R. H. Thomson Expressway. When plans for the expressway were scrapped following a citizens' freeway revolt, the interchange ramps and bridges remained in place and are mostly unused. On January 31, 2013, Washington state announced that the ghost ramps would be removed sometime between 2014 and 2016.[21] They were finally demolished in 2017, despite calls to preserve them in memory of the protests that cancelled the expressway project.[22]
  • Big Four Bridge (built 1895), a 2,530-foot (770 m) single-track railroad bridge over the Ohio River in Louisville, Kentucky, which was abandoned in 1968 and had both its approach spans removed and sold for scrap the following year. In February 2013, the bridge was reopened on one end for pedestrian and bicycle traffic.[23] In May 2014, the Jeffersonville, Indiana, ramp opened, allowing pedestrians and cyclists to travel between downtown Jeffersonville and Waterfront Park in Louisville.[24]
  • Bridge to Nowhere (San Gabriel Mountains) (built 1936), an isolated road bridge over the San Gabriel River in southern California. The connecting road was never built. The bridge is a popular destination for hikers.
  • Fort Duquesne Bridge (built 1963), a road bridge over the Allegheny River in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, which ended mid-air until the ramps were completed in 1969.
  • Miles Glacier Bridge (built 1910), also known as the "Million Dollar Bridge", was converted from railroad use to motor vehicle use and located at the northern end of the unfinished Copper River Highway near Cordova, Alaska. Construction stopped in 1964 when an earthquake damaged the 1,549-foot (472 m) bridge. Although since repaired and reopened, the bridge is nonetheless currently of limited utility due to damage along other points of the route.
  • Hoan Bridge (built 1973), a 2-mile (3 km) road bridge over the Milwaukee River in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, which was unused until access roads were completed in 1977, was lacking freeway connections at the southern end until 1998, and was "going nowhere again" for two months while closed for major repairs after a span partially collapsed in December 2000.
  • Luten Bridge (built 1925), also known as "Mebane Bridge" or "Mebane's Bridge", is a road bridge over the Dan River in Rockingham County on the outskirts of the town of Eden, North Carolina, which was at the center of the landmark Luten Bridge Co. vs. Rockingham County lawsuit that made jurisprudence in 1929 when the contractor continued work on it well after the contract to build it was rescinded and subsequently sued to be reimbursed for this work.
  • Pier 19 (demolished 2012) of a proposed second span of the Ambassador Bridge connecting Windsor, Ontario, and Detroit, Michigan. No second span had ever been approved for this privately owned bridge, largely because the proposal would dump excessive traffic onto Windsor city surface streets, but its owners built ramps for the proposed span in an attempt to counter an internationally supported proposal for a Detroit River International Crossing to the Windsor-Essex Parkway further downriver.[25] The unauthorized ramp was removed in 2012 by court order.[26]
  • An interchange on US 160 southeast of Durango, Colorado completed in November 2011.[27] The bridge was intended to connect to a relocated US 550, but disputes arose over the new US 550 alignment's potential effect on wetlands, archaeological sites, and property fragmentation.[28] The Colorado Department of Transportation signed an agreement with the Federal Highway Administration in spring 2015 regarding the final alignment of US 550, and is now seeking construction funding.[29]
  • The San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge bicycle and pedestrian path was opened in September 2013, but was only connected on the Oakland end of the bridge. In October 2016, the connection to Yerba Buena Island was opened, but as of 2018 there is no bicycle or pedestrian access across the western portion of the Bay Bridge to San Francisco. [30]
  • The Christine West Bridge on the King Coal Highway in Bluefield, West Virginia was built with two parallel high-level spans in 2009 but never connected on either end.

Bridges to unpopulated or low-population areas

Canada

  • In Jasper National Park, at the outlet of Maligne Lake, there is a bridge that crosses the outlet river and proceeds about 300 meters to a parking lot and several hiking trails and a boat launch. The bridge cost millions of dollars to build and was part of a proposed route through the mountains that was never completed.
  • In the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo the Peter Lougheed Bridge crosses the Athabasca River, servicing industrial work sites and leading to the start of the winter road to Fort Chipewyan.[31] Nicknamed the bridge to nowhere due to lack of development at the time of construction.[32]

Ireland

  • The Harry Blaney Bridge in County Donegal spans 340 m (370 yd) and connects the Fanad and Rosguill peninsulas. Opened in 2009 at a cost of 20 million, it was criticised as a bridge to nowhere due to the low population of the area (less than 3,000 on the two peninsulas). Supporters cited the tourism potential of linking the two areas.[33][34][35]

Malta

The St. Elmo Bridge in Valletta, Malta has been called a bridge to nowhere since it only leads to a breakwater and a small lighthouse
  • The St Elmo Bridge leads from the foreshore of Valletta to the breakwater at the entrance of the Grand Harbour. Critics disapproved of the construction cost of €2.8 million and have called it a "bridge to nowhere".[36][37]

Russia

  • The Russky Bridge in Vladivostok was criticised as a "bridge to nowhere", costing about one billion US dollars and serving an island where only 5,000 people live.[38]
  • A four-lane vehicle overpass across the Moscow Ring Road at its 83rd kilometer (sometimes called Molokovsky Overpass) continues the Molokova Street in the Lianozovo District of Moscow outside the city. The Molokova Street is located within a gated community with only local traffic allowed; at the other end, the bridge serves only the Lianozovo Cemetery with a small parking lot next to it, coming to a dead end before a forest. As a result, the overpass only receives significant traffic on prayer for the dead days such as Saturday of Souls.

United States

Obsolete bridges and approaches

  • Ontario Highway 548 in Canada has a short stub of roadway (with double-yellow line still visible) next to a more recent bridge approach. The former ferry approach is now used as a parking lot for people to go fishing from an island connecting the longer bridge to a shorter bridge to St. Joseph Island.
  • The former Bay of Quinte Railway mainline in Napanee (acquired by the now-defunct Canadian Northern Railway in 1910, extended to a Smiths Falls station but abandoned by the late 1970s) still has an Ontario Highway 401 overpass. The rail overpass served a Goodyear tyre factory across the highway until the track was disconnected at Napanee station in 2012; it now goes nowhere. A bascule bridge on the same defunct line crosses the UNESCO-listed Rideau Canal at Smiths Falls, Ontario; that rail bridge sits permanently open but is protected as part of a listed historic site.[43]
  • In the United Arab Emirates, a suspension bridge links Abu Dhabi city and Hodariyat island. The bridge was opened in 2012, but vehicles are not allowed to use it. It appeared to be a waste of money.[44][45] Recently the bridge has opened; the approach road has been extended on the island, and a parking lot has been paved. There are also some small cafes there.
  • CN's Lachine Canal Swing Bridge in Montreal, Canada, an abandoned railway bridge that has been left in the 'open' position in the middle of the Lachine Canal between its successor rail bridge and the Wellington Bridge.[46]
  • The Illinois Central Missouri River Bridge between Omaha, Nebraska and Council Bluffs, Iowa is a disused double-swing railroad bridge. Closed to rail traffic in 1980, the eastern span was secured in the open position to allow for unimpeded river traffic. Initially, the bridge was planned to be used as a contingency should issues affect the Union Pacific Missouri River Bridge approximately 2 miles (3.2 km) to the south, but the rails that formed the approach on the Iowa side were removed in the mid-2000s.[47]
  • McPhaul Suspension Bridge, in Arizona, United States.

See also

References

  1. "Bridge to Nowhere – Summit, NJ". 2005-09-29.
  2. Daniel, Mac (12 December 2004). "Work underway on Route 128 widening project". Retrieved 15 February 2014.
  3. Rosen, Jill (2 November 1998). "I-95 Exit 'To Nowhere' Will Now Go Somewhere". Sun Sentinel. Retrieved 12 March 2014.
  4. Ou, Lingxiao (2012-08-10). "The Results Are In: Chinese Stimulus Fails". The Heritage Foundation. Retrieved 11 August 2012. The world's longest sea bridge, built in Qingdao, [the Jiaozhou Bay Bridge ] has few users, making it the Chinese version of the "Bridge to Nowhere".
  5. Malaher, David (Autumn 1984). "Port Nelson and the Hudson Bay Railway". Manitoba History. Manitoba Historical Society (8). ISSN 0226-5036. Retrieved 2010-08-20.
  6. Wong, Sue-Lin (11 September 2016). "Bridge to nowhere shows China's failed efforts to engage North Korea". Reuters. Retrieved 11 December 2016.
  7. "Hong Kong".
  8. NRK: Ei 52 år forseinka bruopning (3 February 2014, retrieved 19 August 2014)
  9. NRK: – Dette var ein vill reportasjeidé (7 February 2014, retrieved 19 August 2014)
  10. Campo, Liv; Berondo, Wenna (9 September 2005). "Santiago inspects unfinished bridge in Loboc, Bohol". The Philippine Star. Retrieved 26 March 2018.
  11. Путепровод в Павловском Посаде (in Russian). Retrieved 2014-12-22.
  12. Губернатор проинспектировал строительство поликлиники, открыл путепровод и встретился с жителями в Павловском Посаде (in Russian) mosreg.ru, 2015-07-22; Retrieved 2016-04-06
  13. "Stratený viadukt | Košarník". kosarnik.sk.
  14. "Gemerské spojky". VLAKY.NET.
  15. "Sign with facts about San Martín bridge". Archived from the original on 2013-07-04. Anales del Instituto de Estudios Históricos del Sur de Madrid "Jiménez de Gregorio", ISSN 1695-1514, Nº 1, 2000, pp. 87–110. Universidad Carlos III.
  16. "Colliers Wood Residents Association".
  17. "Gam Gurung Bridge formally opened". Merton Council News Room. Merton London Borough Council. 19 June 2015. Retrieved 2015-07-07.
  18. Bordesley Station, Warwickshire Railways
  19. Northwest Exploration (2009)
  20. , Potential use for unused bridge over A120 near Colchester
  21. Lindblom, Mike (January 25, 2013). "520 "ramps to nowhere" to come down". The Seattle Times. Archived from the original on February 24, 2014. Retrieved January 31, 2013.
  22. Lindblom, Mike (February 18, 2017). "An old Highway 520 crossbeam could be 'urban ruins' honoring anti-freeway activists". The Seattle Times. p. A1. Archived from the original on September 28, 2017. Retrieved December 31, 2017.
  23. Staff (7 February 2013). "Big Four bridge opens in Louisville". Business First of Louisville. American City Business Journals. Retrieved 2014-02-01.
  24. "FINALLY: Big Four Bridge opens to Fanfare in Jeffersonville". News and Tribune. Retrieved 10 February 2017.
  25. Dave Battagello (April 26, 2012). "Moroun's 'bridge to nowhere' dismantled". Windsor Star.
  26. http://www.freep.com/article/20120417/BUSINESS06/204170331/
  27. Mary Shinn (Feb 15, 2015). "Bridge to Nowhere to go places". Durango Herald. Retrieved July 13, 2017.
  28. "Bridge to Nowhere may link to 550". Three Springs.
  29. Luke Perkins (Aug 11, 2016). "Bridge to Nowhere's sinking ramps need a face lift". Durango Herald.
  30. "BICYCLE AND PEDESTRIAN PATH | Bay Bridge Info".
  31. http://www.transportation.alberta.ca/Content/docType181/production/bishwy01.pdf
  32. "McMurray Milestones - Bridge To Nowhere" via www.youtube.com.
  33. "Taoiseach opens 'the bridge to nowhere'". Independent.ie.
  34. "BRIAN'S STUNNING HARRY BLANEY BRIDGE PICTURE GOES VIRAL". June 14, 2014.
  35. Run, Clifton Coastal. "Clifton Coastal Run".
  36. "Bridge to nowhere". Times of Malta. 1 April 2014. Archived from the original on 15 November 2018.
  37. Micallef, Keith (1 January 2018). "Breakwater bridge to be brought back to light". Times of Malta. Archived from the original on 1 January 2018.
  38. "The Siberian Times – bridge to Russky island starts working in Vladivostok". siberiantimes.com. Retrieved 3 January 2018.
  39. Kakesako, Gregg K. (2 September 2007). "A Reborn Ford Island Hosts Military Minds". Star-Bulletin. Retrieved 11 February 2014.
  40. Associated Press staff (September 23, 2007). "Alaska Seeks Alternative to Bridge Plan". New York Times. Retrieved April 3, 2009.
  41. Dermot Cole (August 5, 2014). "Alaska's longest bridge completed across Tanana River". Alaska Dispatch News. Retrieved August 5, 2014.
  42. Tim Ellis (November 8, 2013). "State's Longest Bridge Nears Completion, but Budget Cuts May Limit Army's Ability to Use It". KUAC. Retrieved August 5, 2014.
  43. "New canal head may change hiring methods", Ottawa Citizen, Nov 8, 1983 (railway bridge is second-last paragraph)
  44. "The National – The Middle East. Explained". Retrieved 3 January 2018.
  45. "Earthglance – Bridge to nowhere on an undeveloped island in Abu..." Earthglance. Retrieved 3 January 2018.
  46. "Railway Swing Bridge - Lachine Canal". Waymarking. Retrieved 14 May 2018.
  47. https://www.johnweeks.com/river_missouri/pages/omaha07.html
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