The £3.4bn bridge between two countries in Europe that costs a whopping £52 to cross
The cost of this ambitious bridge came at approximately £3.44billion, and was paid for by both countries being linked by this infrastructure.
San Franciso's Golden Gate, London's Tower Bridge and Florence's Ponte Vecchio - all are famous in their own right whether it be for its sheer monstrous size or beauty. But there is another, lesser known bridge in Europe that is equally as impressive.
Since July 2000, Sweden and Denmark have officially been linked by the Øresund Bridge, a combined railway and motorway connection across the Øresund strait.
Øresund Bridge runs from the Swedish coast near the city of Malmo to the artificial Danish island of Peberholm, located in the middle of the strait.
From there, the link is completed by a tunnel connecting the island to Amager, where Copenhagen Airport is located. The total length of the infrastructure is 9.8 miles.
Peberholm, built to create a crossover point between the tunnel and the bridge, has been equipped with an exit from the motorway, banned from unauthorised traffic, and a helicopter pad to be used mainly in case of traffic accidents.
The cost of this infrastructure came to approximately £3.44billion (DKK 30bn) at the time, paid for by both the Danish and Swedish governments.
In 2003 it was shared that Copenhagen and Stockholm were expecting to recoup the money spent on this infrastructure, consisting of both a bridge, a tunnel and an artificial island, by 2037.
The bridge, which in 2022 saw the daily crossing of an average of 18,434 road vehicles, has been tipped by the Öresund Committee to make a national economic gain of £6.53bn (DKK 57bn) on both sides of the strait by increasing commuting and lower the connected expenses.
Alongside the claims made by the Committee, which works for regional political collaboration, a 2021 study alleged the infrastructure positively impacted Malmo, as the Swedish city saw an increase in innovation in the years that followed the launch of the bridge, possibly thanks to high-skilled workers travelling to work there.
Users of this infrastructure have to pay for their passage at toll booths placed on the Swedish part of the bridge.
The cost of the crossing varies depending on the type of vehicle motorists are driving, and goes from £26.35 (DKK 230) for a motorcycle to £52.14 (DKK 455) for an average passenger car to £183.34 (DKK 1600) for motorhomes and vans.
After becoming part of the daily lives of many Danes and Swedes, the Øresund Bridge was also adopted by pop culture.
The first season of the noir crime television series called The Bridge, which since 2012 has been aired also on the BBC, is centred around the finding of a dead body on the Øresund Bridge, which sparks a fictional investigation led jointly by police from both Sweden and Denmark.
Moreover, the set designed for the 2013 Eurovision Song Contest hosted by Malmo was inspired by the bridge, as Sweden wanted to symbolise its connection with the rest of Europe.
This bridge is among the longest in Europe, alongside the 12-mile-long Kerch Bridge wanted by Russian President Vladimir Putin to link Russia and Crimea following his illegal annexation of the peninsula and the Vasco de Gama Bridge in Portugal.
