The largest bridge at any airport in the world – tall enough for a Jumbo jet to pass underneath – was opened at Gatwick yesterday.
The 650-foot enclosed structure is part of a £100 expansion scheme to accommodate rising passenger numbers, linking the north terminal with a new “pier” that provides stands for 12 aircraft.
The Daily Telegraph, which carries a photograph of a Boeing 747 passing under the bridge for the first time, reports that some 10,000 passengers a day will soon be using the bridge, giving them “spectacular views of aircraft as they take off, land and manoeuvre to and from parking stands”.
The airport’s managing director Roger Cato is quoted as saying: “This is a fantastic engineering achievement that will dramatically improve passengers’ experience.”
Meanwhile, in France, another bridge is nearly ready to open – and this one is likely to become a tourist attraction in its own right. The Millau Bridge, over the river Tarn in the south of the country, will open in December after three and a half years of building work.
The Times reports that the bridge’s final span was put in place yesterday, completing the 1.6-mile structure and making it the world’s highest bridge. The highest concrete pillar on the bridge is some 80 feet higher than Paris’ 900-foot Eiffel Tower.
Report by Tim Gillett, News From Abroad
