Bridges to Nowhere
Drivers on the A10 ring road in Amsterdam can be forgiven for any confusion experienced when they see this incomplete section of highway bridge.
We’re not sure what happened - maybe the construction crew finished up early one Friday afternoon and by the following Monday had forgotten what they were supposed to be building?
Meanwhile in Tehran, a similar situation seems to be coming to an end. We’re told this bridge sat unconnected to anything for at least 8 years, but the construction currently visible at the north end of the bridge may mean that it will finally get put to use some day. Still a bit of a drop if you were to drive off the south end though…
Let us know if you find any more abandoned bridges.
Thanks to Asmir Babaca and Mazi.
![World's Largest Saw [Updated]](http://media.googlesightseeing.com/wp-content/images/worldslargestsaw.jpg "World's Largest Saw [Updated]")
Placemark: This end / Google Earth of the Higway in Buenos Aires remains unfinished by at least 25 years, and I think it will never be finished. There is a ground level photo in Panoramio’s links.
By the way ¿does anybody know why the labels all around the city are just plain wrong? A few months ago there where no labels for anything in Argentina, now they added the names of the neighbourhoods around the city, but almost none of them are in the right place….
Well, there was a construction mess here near Nantes, with some unfinished bridges and roads : Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth
There is one famous recent example in Germany, the “Placemark: Itztalbrücke / Google Earth“.
Unfortunately, none of the map services seem to have up to date imagery - the bridge is right next to the motorway, where the marker sits.
The about 850m long bridge is meant for a high-speed railway line that is supposed to arrive there in about 2015-2017. The bridge was finished in 2005, at the same time as the A73 motorway passing there - thereby using the construction infrastructure in place at the time. Funding for the rest of the railway link is unclear by now though, so it might be bridge to nowhere for even longer than the planned 10 years.
(Ground level image)
Damn, GSS ate my map marker. Just look at the middle of the image…
Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth In the mountains north of Los Angeles is an abandoned bridge from a mid-1930s project to run a road across the mountains. After getting about halfway, they only then realized the road would be subject to frequent flooding, and so stopped the project at the north end of this bridge. Due to frequent flooding, the road to the south is now no longer usable either except by foot or horseback.
There are plenty of these in the USA as a result of the freeway revolts - after some interstates were built, residents of cities decided they didn’t want them running through their cities. Baltimore, in particular, has several examples where interstate construction was halted: I-70: Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth and I-95: Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth (these are harder to see - look closely).
We have this onehttp://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=manchester&ie=UTF8&ll=53.472042,-2.236646&spn=0.002299,0.006866&t=k&z=18 in Manchester, UK.
I think what you meant to say was this wasnt it Jim?
Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth
Bridge to Nowhere, Bovoni, St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands
Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth
There was going to be an inner beltway built in boston, circling from just south of the city on what is now I-93, to just north of the city on I-93. (I-93 used to start just north of boston and now starts south of the city partway around the state route 128 beltway).
There was a freeway revolt before it was built, however. But some infrastructure had already been built for it.
To prepare for this, there were several bridges and offramps built. The one built south of the city was turned into a big offramp to a street and then rebuilt as part of the big dig project. The one north of the city can still be seen here:
Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth
And there’s a bridge across the highway at the I-93/I-95 interchange south of boston that I think was built for the project and then abandoned and finally put into use for highway maintenance traffic. Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth
As mentioned in the Dutch Wikipedia (http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grands_travaux_inutiles), the flyover might be used for a seond tunnel underneath the Noordzeekanaal.
The M8 motorway between Glasgow and Edinburgh used to have two Bridges to Nowhere over it, both in Glasgow.
The Sauchiehall Street bridge had neither end connected for many years until an office block was built on top of it in the mid 90s (ground level pic).
The Anderston footbridge was built to connect into a shopping centre that was never built, and the bridge has ended abruptly 12 metres above a car park ever since.
I fondly remember these bridges from trips through to Glasgow in my youth!
More info at Wikipedia on M8 Bridges to Nowhere.
This one in Naples would’ve got straight through a house if it’d been finished
Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth / Live Maps Bird’s Eye
Two I’m familiar with…
Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth Cutler Circle, Revere, Mass., USA, has two bridges, technically an unfinished freeway, that had been planned to extend Interstate 95 north from Boston north to Peabody, a stretch named Northeast Expressway (the complement of the existing Southeast Expressway), but environmental concerns about the planned route through marshlands and a major city park canceled the project.
Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth Washington State Arboretum, Seattle, Wash., USA: These stubs were intended to form the R. H. Thompson Expressway, which would have served as an Interstate 5 bypass from Interstate 90 to State Rt. 520. Again, because it would have run over the west side of the Arboretum, environmental concerns canceled the project, though development in this area to alleviate heavy 520 traffic is still attractive to highway planners..
There are two unfinished highway bidges in Czech republic, built during the WWII as a part of first hiqhway between Prague and Brno: Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth These bridges were abandoned because of creation of Prague’s water supply lake.
I just noticed that Regis’ subs are for the same project as mine, though it was for 95 not 93 — 93 already goes through downtown Boston (well, these days, mostly underneath it). 95 meanwhile now piggybacks on 128 from Peabody to Blue Hill. As a result this portion of 95 is west of 93, making it one of the oddities of the interstate system’s numbering order.
Placemark: Just west of downtown Columbus OH / Google Earth is an abandoned street bridge over I-70/I-71. You can see the upper right end of the roadway doesn’t connect to anything anymore.
There is a really big project that came to a sudden halt in Cape Town, South Africa. Several sections of the infamous uncompleted bridge exist, with rumors of plans to finish the project creeping up every now and then. This highway in the sky is sorely needed to ease traffic in Cape Town.
Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth
Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth
Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth
The latest rumor is that the bridges will be completed for the Soccer World cup to be hosted by South Africa in 2010. But only time will tell…
35.15296,-90.053805
That bridge just inside of Memphis, TN has been that way as long as I can remember. We would always joke about accidentally going that way and falling off (at one point it had non-permanent concrete barriers rather than being completely blocked off with the guard rail like it is now)
oops:
Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth
These are awesome! Who knew there were so many abandoned bridges and ramps out there?
It’s interesting to see many slowly being taken over by nature while others are turned into parking lots or storage areas.
Bonus Points for the nice bridge shadow just to the west of that one in Memphis, Jay K!
The old crossing for the freeway here was torn down.. the new was built and and something about the development of the land on the east side bridge caused it to be delayed for something like 4 years.. so the shiny new ped bridge lay there waiting. Until just this year when it was finished
Google Maps”
oops, thats in lynnwood, wa, usa
I don’t know if this really counts, it’s kind of an elevated offramp to nowhere:
Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth
Most international thread ever?
Its like a Benetton ad in here!
Loving it!
Do stubs for planned but never built on/off ramps, like this one on the (elevated, so its technically a bridge, right?) Seattle Viaduct, count? Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth
All we need now is Keanu Reeves and a speeding bus LOL
Here’s a motorway junction in Belgium that is only half-used Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth
There’s also a “Bridge to Nowhere” in New Zealand at Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth but the imagary isn’t great
In Belgium - Ypres, the highway just stops at one end…
Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth
Here’s an example of a bridge that’s unfinished according to google maps: Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth
But actually was finished later: http://www.panoramio.com/photo/8726903
I can’t imagine nobody mentioned the most famous bridge of all: Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth
(famous because of this)
I also can’t imagine I have to pass a *** spam filter if I include two *** links in my *** comment… What is this?
@dr R: Apologies, we’re getting hit really hard with the spam at the moment, and Akismet isn’t doing a very good job of stopping it, so I’ve had to tighten the security.
In Sao Paulo we have this bridge: Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth
but it’s already finished, so it’s funny to see the thing unfinished still
The Belgian motorways have their peculiarities, indeed - here’s one, not far south of Phil’s, where you do a u-turn across all lanes.
A lot of bridges are to do with future constructions, but sometimes there’s so much affection for old ones they just shift them out of the way.
Then again, there’s the old London Bridge which ended up here in Arizona, just about still in business, but how are the mighty fallen!