Jump to content

Megyeri Bridge

Coordinates: 47°36′25.68″N 19°5′31.97″E / 47.6071333°N 19.0922139°E / 47.6071333; 19.0922139
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by SmackBot (talk | contribs) at 09:24, 23 December 2009 (Delink dates (WP:MOSUNLINKDATES) using Project:AWB). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Megyeri Bridge
Megyeri Bridge at night
Coordinates47°36′26″N 19°05′32″E / 47.60722°N 19.09222°E / 47.60722; 19.09222
CarriesM0 beltway of Budapest
CrossesDanube
LocaleBudapest,  Hungary
Characteristics
Designcable-stayed bridge
Total length1,862 m (6,109 ft)
Height100 m (328 ft)
Longest span300 m (984 ft)
Clearance below30 m (98 ft)
History
OpenedSeptember 30, 2008
Location
Map


The Megyeri Bridge, previously known as the Northern M0 Danube bridge, is a cable-stayed bridge that spans the River Danube between Buda and Pest, respectively the west and east sides of Budapest, the capital of Hungary. It is a very important section of the M0 ringroad around Budapest.

The bridge cost 63 billion forints (approx. US$300M).[1] It was officially opened on September 30, 2008 [1], however, the National Transport Authority of Hungary has only issued a temporary permission because of the disagreement of the suburban cities surrounding the bridge. It has received much media attention due to the naming poll started to name the bridge.


Technical information

The total length of the bridge is 1862m. Structurally it is composed of five parts:

1. Left quayside inundation area bridge  : 148m
2. Main Danube-branch bridge (cable stayed) : 590m with a span of 300m
3. Szentendre island inundation area bridge : 559m
4. Szentendre Danube-branch bridge  : 332m
5. Right quayside inundation area bridge  : 218m


Naming poll

The Ministry of Economic Affairs and Transport of Hungary organized a public vote online to solicit possible names for the new bridge. The three names with the most votes, as well as suggestions from local governments, cartographers, linguists and other experts, were to be reviewed by a government committee before a final name for the bridge was chosen. New nominations were accepted until August 21, 2006, and the voting ended on September 8, 2006, with Stephen Colbert winning with 93,163 votes, and Jon Stewart and Zrínyi close behind with 85,171 and 83,966 votes, respectively.

File:Colbert-zrinyi.jpg
Colbert calls "16th century Hungarian leader Nicholas Zrínyi" an "asshole," using a graphic of his great-grandson on The Colbert Report.

On August 1, 2006, Reuters reported that the top candidate according to the online poll was the "Chuck Norris híd", named for American action star Chuck Norris.[2] On August 11, 2006, American satirist Stephen Colbert discussed the story on his comedy program The Colbert Report, instructing his viewers to visit the polling website and vote for him instead of Norris. The next day the number of votes for him had grown 230 times, and he now asked his viewers to follow a link from his own "Colbert Nation" website, to avoid "all that illegible Hungarian". Colbert's site also indirectly offered techniques for "stuffing the ballot box"[citation needed], as users of their forums created several automated scripts to cast multiple votes for Colbert[citation needed]. On August 15, 2006, he repeated his call to be voted top of the Hungarian poll, and by August 22, 2006, the "Stephen Colbert híd" was in first with 17 million votes, about 14 million votes ahead of the second-placed Zrínyi híd, named after the Hungarian national hero, Miklós Zrínyi, and about 7 million more than the entire population of Hungary. The same day, the site announced a new round of voting, which would require registration to participate, and Colbert asked his viewers to "call off the dogs", requesting on his website that fans stop using scripts to vote. Despite this, the "Stephen Colbert híd" remained in the top position on the website in the second round.

On September 14, 2006, András Simonyi—the ambassador of Hungary to the United States—announced on The Colbert Report that Stephen Colbert had won the vote. Unfortunately for Colbert, Ambassador Simonyi declared that under Hungarian law, Colbert would have to be fluent in Hungarian, and would have to be deceased in order to have the bridge named for him. However, after saying the rules could most likely be bent, he invited Colbert to visit Hungary and view the construction in person and gave him a Hungarian passport and a 10,000 HUF Bill, with an approximate value of, as the ambassador put it, 'fifty dollars, fifty good US dollars'. Colbert promptly tried to bribe him with said money.

Results

Megyeri Bridge

On September 28, 2006, it was announced that the bridge will be named "Megyeri Bridge", even though that name did not make it to the second round. The Hungarian Geographical Name Committee justified the final name by explaining that the bridge connects Káposztásmegyer and Békásmegyer[5].

See also

References

  1. ^ a b "Átadták a csodahidat "Wonder bridge opens"". Index.hu. September 30, 2008.
  2. ^ "Chuck Norris leads vote for Budapest bridge name". Reuters. August 8, 2006.
  3. ^ "M0-ás híd portál". gkm.gov.hu. September 8, 2006.
  4. ^ "M0-ás híd portál". gkm.gov.hu. September 8, 2006.
  5. ^ "The M0 Bridge named as Megyeri Bridge". RTLKlub.hu. September 28, 2006.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Megyeri híd.

47°36′25.68″N 19°5′31.97″E / 47.6071333°N 19.0922139°E / 47.6071333; 19.0922139

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Megyeri_Bridge&oldid=333507660"