Gary’s Q&A

Listener question & Gary’s response · Transcript passage

The first question comes from Tim Manchester, who asks, “What are your top 5 favorite bridges in the world?”OK, in no particular order, based on the bridges that I’ve visited, the first bridge would be the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. It’s a beautiful iconic bridge. It was an important bridge in engineering history, and if you are ever in San Francisco, it is a great experience to walk across it and back.

The second bridge will be the Akashi Kaikyo Bridge in Kobe, Japan. I visited there back in 2007 when, at the time, it was the longest suspension bridge in the world. They have a very nice observation area on the bridge where you can experience the size of the bridge.

The third bridge will be the Vizcaya Bridge, which is located in the Basque Country of Spain. The Vizcaya Bridge is often called a hanging bridge. Instead of a normal bridge where the deck covers the bridge and allows people to cross, a hanging bridge only has a small deck that is ferried back and forth by cables. It is sort of a combination of a cable car and a ferry.

My fourth bridge will be the Stari Most bridge in the town of Mostar in Bosnia Herzegovina. It is a historic bridge that was commissioned in 1557 by Suleiman the Magnificent and is today a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

My fifth bridge would have to be the Millau Viaduct in France. This is the tallest bridge in the world, having a structural height of 336.4 meters or 1,104 feet. It is a beautiful bridge and driving across it was a very heady experience given how high up in the air it was.