France dedicates tall bridge

MILLAU, France – Thundering fighter jets streamed the blue, white and red of the French tricolor as President Jacques Chirac on Tuesday dedicated the world’s tallest bridge, a skyway span dwarfing the Eiffel Tower by more than 50 feet.

Ahead of its public opening Thursday, the Millau bridge in southern France has been celebrated as a work of art combining the strength of concrete and steel with the “delicacy of a butterfly.”

Stretching 1.6 miles through France’s Massif Central mountains, the bridge will enable motorists to take a drive 891 feet above the Tarn River valley.

Chirac underscored the national pride stirred by the bridge by lifting a French flag from its ceremonial plaque, followed by air force jets trailing the colors of France.

“This exceptional opening will go down in industrial and technological history,” Chirac said, praising the designers and builders for creating “a prodigy of art and architecture – a new emblem of French civil engineering.”

The bridge will serve as a symbol of “a modern and conquering France,” he said.

Designed by British architect Norman Foster, the steel-and-concrete bridge with its streamlined diagonal suspension cables rests on seven pillars – the tallest measuring 1,122 feet, making it 53 feet higher than the Eiffel Tower.

Foster said in an interview with the newspaper Midi Libre that the bridge’s airy and fluid appearance was designed to have the “delicacy of a butterfly.”

“A work of man must fuse with nature. The pillars had to look almost organic, like they had grown from the Earth,” Foster said.