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.

Origins

There are five 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, for example, by earthquake, storm, flood, landslide, 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.
  • The bridge or any other part of the construction can be regarded as a pork barrel project aimed at useless fund spending or money laundering with minor or negligible public usefulness.

    Metaphoric use

The term "bridge to nowhere" may be used by political opponents to describe a bridge that serves low-population areas at high cost, usually characterizing it as an instance of pork barrel spending.
By extension, it may refer to any undertaking perceived as both pointless and costly.

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, to the west, to Avenida Capitan Aviador Omar Castillo, to the east, was never opened. The span of the bridge itself was complete, but it was never connected to the road system on either end, and the ends of the span remained blocked by steep piles of rubble. In lieu of the elevated vehicle bridge, the small, low Onofre Marimon Bridge connected the two streets for small volumes of pedestrian traffic. In 2020 it was finally connected at both ends and open to vehicle traffic, and the lower bridge was demolished. The remains of the bridge can still be seen at Puente Mercedes Sosa.

    Belgium

  • Rue Emile Pathé/Emile Pathéstraat in Forest, Brussels, 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.
  • In Perwez, a bridge originally destinated to the bypass of the city is now abandoned in the middle of the fields.

    Bulgaria

  • Bulgaria's capital city of Sofia has a highspeed city bypass called Northern Speed Tangent, which upon completion had three bridges with two clover-style interchanges. These three bridges were built with the intention to connect the north neighbourhoods of Sofia, however since 2016, when the high speed bypass was built, they have not been connected to the city and are currently bridges to nowhere. Plans are being developed for finally connecting the bridges to the city proper, but due to constant changes and disputed between the local government and road agencies, these plans are frozen.

    Canada

  • Port Nelson Bridge, an isolated rail bridge 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 poorly designed and was found to require excessive dredging due to significant sand bars. The project was greatly criticized by several politicians.
  • Ontario Highway 69 south of Ontario Highway 522 near Grundy Provincial Park. The two bridges are for the southbound and northbound lanes of the future Ontario Highway 400 connecting Greater Sudbury and Toronto.
  • Gaglardi Way in Burnaby, British Columbia: originally ended suddenly as an overpass of Highway 1 at the south end at just a forest, due to a residential subdivision further south, blocking its continuation. The overpass was originally designed as a Cloverleaf interchange, but as the road is not continued, both its northeastern and southeastern cloverleaf ramps were blocked off. Eventually, the dead-end stump and the two blocked off ramps were removed beginning in the late 2000s, and completely removed at mid 2013.

    China

  • Yalu River Broken Bridge in Dandong. The south span was destroyed during the Korean War.
  • New Yalu River Bridge in Dandong. The US$330 million bridge was completed in 2015, but on the North Korean side it is not connected to the road network.
  • Nandu River Iron Bridge in Hainan is a partially collapsed, steel truss bridge over the Nandu River. It was built by the Imperial Japanese Army during the Second Sino-Japanese War. In October 2000, flooding caused the collapse of the western part of the bridge, leaving three trusses.

    Czech Republic

  • The Borovsko Bridge, an unfinished motorway bridge from the 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, which remain unfinished and unconnected to the road network.

    France

  • Pont Saint-Bénézet in Avignon over the Rhône river. Several arches were broken by flood in the middle of the 17th century.
  • The viaduc du Caramel and viaduc du Carei of the former tramway line from Menton to Sospel.
  • The jetée from the Grande Arche de La Défense to the U Arena in Nanterre. Its final stairs are not to be completed.

    Germany

The colloquial name for a bridge to nowhere in Germany is "Soda-Brücke". 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.