by Jerome a Paris
Sat May 17th, 2008 at 05:14:41 PM EST
It's been a while since we had some bridge blogging, so I took the opportunity of a visit to Strasbourg last month to take a few pictures of the passerelle des deux rives, pedestrian bridge over the Rhine which links Strasbourg in France to Kehl in Germany.

the bridge as seen from Germany, from the North
The bridge has a pretty interesting look for up close, as it consists of two separate arches: one straight (for pedestrians) and one curved (for bikers); this creates some unusual shapes for a bridge:




This picture, from the Structurae website, shows how weird the bridge can look:

as seen from the French side



On both sides, it ends up in parks that have been recently created, and which are very pleasant for strolls (along the river) of with kids (with various games areas). On the French side, it's also become a place where concerts and outdoor shows happen.
And, having been build over two countries, it is also a symbol of the progress made by public authorities in getting to work together to treat the region more as a single unit at the center of a wider region, rather than as two regions at the end of their respective countries.

On a personal note, not having been in Strasbourg (where I grew up) for a few years? I was amazed to see all the work that has taken place to reshape the city - the tramway of course, the biking paths everywhere, the brand news TGV train station (recently photographed in a diary or comment by DoDo which I cannot find), a new science museum and lots more.