Bridge to nowhere

For other uses, see Bridge to nowhere (disambiguation).

A bridge to nowhere is a bridge where one or both ends are broken or incomplete and does not lead anywhere. There are three main origins for these bridges:

• The bridge was never completed, because of the cost, or because of property rights.
• One end or both end has collapsed or have been destroyed – e.g., by earthquake, storm, flood, or war.
• The bridge is not used, but was not demolished because of the cost. For instance, the bridges on abandoned railway line.

Further, bridge to nowhere is also used by political opponents to describe a bridge (or proposed bridge) that serve low-population areas at high cost.

Incomplete and damaged bridges

China

• Sino-Korean Friendship Bridge in Dandong, the south span was destroyed during the Koren War.

England

• Duddeston Viaduct, a disused railway viaduct in Birmingham 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.

Slovakia

• Viaduct in Kopráš, never used railway viaduct in village Kopráš near town Jelšava in south Slovakia. Viaduct is 120 m long and 40 m high, it was finished in 1945, but was never used, because rail to viaduct was never completed due to events of World War II. Next to the viaduct are adjacent two finished tunnels without any connection to railways. Tunnel near village Slavošovce is 2800 m long and tunnel near village Kopráš 350 m long. These tunnels to nowhere were also never used, because railway construction ended in 1948 before its completion.

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

New Zealand

• Bridge to Nowhere, built in 1936 is 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

United States

• 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 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. The connecting road was never built.
• 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 on the outskirts of the town of Eden, North Carolina, which was at the center of the landmark Luten Bridge Co. vs. Rockingham County lawsuit that made jurisprudence in 1929
• 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.

Bridges to unpopulated or low population areas

Russia

• Bridge to Russky Island was criticised as a 'bridge to nowhere', serving an island where only 5,000 people live.

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 US 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
• 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