Bridge to nowhere

For other uses, see Bridge to Nowhere (disambiguation)

A bridge to Nowhere is a bridge whose one end, or both ends are broken and may not let to go anywhere. There are three origins for these briges :

• The bridge was never achieved, because of the cost, or because of property rights.
• One end or both end has collapsed or have been destroyed because of earthquake, flood or because of war.
• The bridge is disused, but was not destroyed because of the cost. For instance, the bridges on abandoned railway line.

Examples of Bridges to Nowhere

United States

• Gravina Island Bridge (never built), a proposed road bridge over the Tongass Narrows connecting the town of Ketchikan, Alaska to their airport, and often cited as an example of politicians' spending on projects that are intended primarily to benefit particular constituents, and a controversial topic of the 2008 and 2012 U.S. presidential election campaigns
• Knik Arm Bridge (never built), a proposed 3.2 km road bridge over the Knik Arm portion of Cook Inlet, north of Anchorage Alaska, first envisioned in the 1950s
• Miles Glacier Bridge (built 1910), also known as the Million Dollar Bridge, converted from railroad to motor vehicle use and located at the northern end of the unfinished Copper River Highway near Cordova Alaska, construction of which stopped in 1964 when an earthquake damaged the 472 m bridge
• Big Four Bridge (built 1895), a 770 m single track railroad bridge over the Ohio River in Louisville, Kentucky, which was abandoned in 1968 and had both its approach spans removed and sold for scrap the following year
• Bridge to Nowhere (San Gabriel Mountains) (built 1936), an isolated road bridge over the San Gabriel River in Southern California
• Fort Duquesne Bridge (built 1963), a road bridge over the Allegheny River in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, which ended mid-air until the ramps were completed in 1969
• Hoan Bridge (built 1973), a 3 km road bridge over the Milwaukee River in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, which was unused until access roads were completed in 1977, was lacking freeway connections at the southern end until 1998, and was "going nowhere again" for two months while closed for major repairs after a span partially collapsed in December 2000
• Luten Bridge (built 1925), also known as Mebane Bridge or Mebane's Bridge, a road bridge over the Dan River in Rockingham County, North Carolina, which was at the center of the landmark Luten Bridge Co. vs. Rockingham County lawsuit that made jurisprudence in 1929
• Vincent Thomas Bridge (built 1963), a 1.85 km road bridge over Los Angeles Harbor in California, originally dubbed a "bridge to nowhere" but later becoming a heavily used bridge
• Pier 19 (demolished 2012) of a proposed second span of the Ambassador Bridge in Windsor-Detroit. No second span had ever been approved for this privately-owned bridge, largely because the proposal would dump excessive traffic onto Windsor city surface streets, but its owners built ramps for the proposed span in an attempt to counter an internationally-supported proposal for a Detroit River International Crossing to the Windsor-Essex Parkway further downriver.

New Zealand

• Bridge to Nowhere, New Zealand (built 1936), an isolated 40 m road bridge over the Mangapurua Stream in Whanganui National Park, North Island

Scotland

• M8 Bridge to Nowhere, two separate bridges over the M8 motorway in Glasgow: one eventually had an office block constructed on it; the other remains unfinished

England

• Duddeston Viaduct, a disused railway viaduct in Birmingham, England commonly known as the "Viaduct to Nowhere"
• Bewley Street Footbridge, in Colliers Wood, London, which is blocked off at one end due to a dispute over the cost of building an access ramp.

France

Pont de Saint-Bénezet

• Pont de Saint-Bénezet in Avignon over the Rhône river. Several arches were broken by flood
• The viaduc du Caramel and viaduc du Carei of the former tramway line from Menton to Sospel