French (?) Bridge

New French Bridge 

The French have built a Viaduct to help ease traffic congestion in southern France.

President Jacques Chirac inaugurated the world's highest bridge on Tuesday, a creation taller than the Eiffel Tower, longer than the Champs Elysees and designed to end a traffic bottleneck in southern France.

Conceived by British architect Norman Foster, the slender white viaduct in the picturesque Tarn Valley will provide a new motorway link between Paris and the Spanish border, easing congestion in the Rhone valley during the busy summer months.

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He hailed the viaduct as a ``marvel of art and architecture,'' a monument to French engineering genius that was a ``miracle of equilibrium'' and projected a bold, successful, modern image.

``The Millau Viaduct is a magnificent example, in the long and great French tradition, of audacious works of art, a tradition begun at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries by the great Gustave Eiffel,'' Chirac told a reception.

Here's a question for you: if it was conceived by a British architect how can it possibly be "a monument to French engineering genius?" Ah, but perhaps it is the perfect monument to their "genius." It was created by a Brit instead of a Frenchman!

I can't help but think that this viaduct would also make a wonderful target for terrorists. I have this sneaking suspicion that cars falling from heights exceeding that of the Eiffel Tower would be somewhat of a damper on the whole "bold, successful, modern image" that Chirac envisions. Considering the rise of Islamic Fundamentalism in France and the success of the terrorist fringe in Spain, such a scenario hardly seems to be out of the question.