Lugard Footbridge in Kaduna (Nigeria)

"For two or three generations we can show the negro what we are, then we shall be asked to go away. Then we shall leave the land to those it belongs to with a feeling that they have better business friends in us than in other white men"

Frederick Lugard

Devil Bridge over the Navette Creek in La Chapelle-en-Valgaudemar, Hautes Alpes (France)

 Human nature seems to me like the Alps. The depths are profound, black as night, and terrifying, but the heights are equally real, uplifted in the sunshine.

Emily Greene Balch

Bridge in the Bernina Railway Line (Switzerland) in a painting by Edmund Welf

"Switzerland is a small, steep country, much more up and down than sideways, and is all stuck over with large brown hotels built on the cuckoo clock style of architecture.”

Ernest Hemingway

Bridge over the Blatasnica River near Babusnica (Serbia)

 "A mighty river owes its power to the little brooks."

Serbian proverb

Pontoon Bridge crossing the Tone River in Sano, Kozuke (Japan) painted by Katsushika Hokusai

If heaven gives me ten more years, or an extension of even five years, I shall surely become a true artist.

Katsushika Hokusai

Bandra-Worli Sea Link Bridge over the Mahim Bay in Bombay or Mumbai, Maharastra (India)

Neither by service nor fee
Come I to mine estate —
Mother of Cities to me,
For I was born in her gate,
Between the palms and the sea,
Where the world-end steamers wait.

In the poem To the City of Bombay

by Rudyard Kipling

Groszowy Bridge over the Mlynowka canal in Opole (Poland)

This bridge is my own fault
I felt locked in a cage and decided to go
Chasing freedom that I thought I've lost
I just wasn't ready to admit I was wrong
But when I tasted the new world
I found out the cage was a place I belong

Exerpt from Bridge, 

song by polish singer Dawid Podsiadlo

Menai Bridge over the Menai Strait between Anglesey Island and mainland in Wales (United Kingdom)

"The opening up of the internal communications of a country is undoubtedly the first and most important element of its growth in commerce and civilization."

By Thomas Telford, 

designer of this bridge

LONGEST SUSPENSION BRIDGE IN THE WORLD FROM 1826 TO 1834

Three Countries Bridge across the Rhine River between Huningue (France) and Weil am Rhein (Germany)

“Urban planning and architecture have a strong influence on our well-being.”

Dietmar Feichtinger, designer of this bridge

Saint Servatius Bridge over the Meuse River in Maastricht (Netherlands)

 

"On the banks of the Meuse is where I can recover. I can't do it on the Rhine, forget about the Waal. Only on the Meuse, here along the Meuse."

Dutch poet Ton Engels

La Caille Bridge over the river Les Usses between Cruseilles and Allonzier, Haute Savoie (France)

 
HIGHEST BRIDGE IN THE WORLD FROM 1839 TO 1912

Craigellachie Bridge over the Spey River in Moray, Scotland (United Kingdom)

"...Then as knowledge is my most ardent pursuit a thousand things occur which call for investigation which would pass unnoticed by those who are content to trudge only in the beaten path. I am not contented unless I can give a reason for every particular method or practice which is pursued."

By Thomas Telford,

engineer who designed this bridge

Illustration of the Triana Bridge over the Guadalquivir River in Sevilla (Spain)

Cuando paso por el puente, Triana,

Contigo vida mía,

Cuando paso el puente Triana,
Contigo vida mía, Triana,
Contigo vida mía,
Con mirarte solamente, Triana,
Me muero de alegría,
Por que tienes unos ojos, Triana,
Igual que dos luceros, Triana,
Igual que dos luceros,
Y una clase de «jechuras», Triana,
Que vale el mundo entero.

From the Sevillanas de Triana

Roman Bridge over the Passirio River in Merano, Trentino - Alto Adige (Italy)

When from the sod the flow’rets spring,

And smile to meet the sun’s bright ray,

When birds their sweetest carols sing

In all them morning pride of May,

What lovelier than the prospect there?

Can earth boast any thing more fair?

To me it seems an almost heaven,

So beauteous to my eyes that vision bright is given.

Poem by Walther von der Vogelweide, 

South Tyrol poet

Tabak Bridge over the Lana River in Tirana (Albania)

I long for evenings in the streets of Tirana,

Where I’ve done a mischief or two,
And even in those streets where I have not.
They know me, those old wooden gates,
They will still hold their old grudges,
Shaking their head at me,
But I won’t mind
Because I’m filled with longing.
And in the sidestreets full of dried leaves,
Dried leaves, autumn leaves,
For which comparisons are aplenty.

In a poem by Ismail Kadare

Tower Bridge crossing the Thames River in London (United Kingdom)

Maybe it’s because I’m a Londoner
That I love London so
Maybe it’s because I’m a Londoner
That I think of her wherever I go
I get a funny feeling inside of me
Just walking up and down
Maybe it’s because I’m a Londoner
That I love London town.

Hubert Gregg

Rheinkniebrucke over the Rhine River in Dusseldorff (Germany)

The scouring of the canvas against gravel
and now and then the saturated sound
of ships and trucks passing without her.
It grows dark in my tent on the Rhine,
where everything is drying to be saved:
Thyssenhaus, Königsallee, Krimhilde,
but even more the nameless hitchhiker,
suddenly a heavily painted woman hunting
for gold and revenge in this wakeful night.
In excessive rains of regression, she floods
all my banks again, drowning me
in a score of lust. Sucking her mark.

Poem Dusseldorf

Albert Hagenaars

Adderley Viaduct near Kallar in the Nilgiri Mountains Railway, Kerala (India)

"Mark the shadowing rain and tempest," Rama to his brother said,
As on Nalya's cloud-capped ranges in their hermit-guise they strayed,
Massive clouds like rolling mountains gather thick and gather high,
Lurid lightnings glint and sparkle, pealing thunders shake the sky,
Pregnant with the ocean moisture by the solar ray instilled,
Now the skies like fruitful mothers are with grateful waters filled!
...

Excerpt from The Rain of Nilgiri Mountains

chapter in the Ramayana historic poem

Pont Vieux over the Aude River in Carcassonne, Aude (France)

 


“We are living in modern times throughout the world and yet are dominated by medieval minds.”

Eqbal Ahmad

Constitución 1812 Bridge over the Cádiz Bay between Cádiz and Puerto Real (Spain)

Esteros de Sancti-Petri.
salinas de San Fernando,
espejos de sol y sal
donde se duermen los barcos.
Isla de Guadalquivir,
donde se fueron los moros
que no se quisieron ir.
Entre la tierra y el cielo
no hay mujeres con más sal
que las gitanas del Puerto,
de Cádiz hasta Gibraltar.

Ending of the song Bahía de Cádiz (Cádiz Bay)

by Camarón de la Isla

Roman Bridge crossing the Moselle in Trier, Rhineland-Palatinate (Germany)

ANTE ROMAM TREVERIS STETIT ANNIS MILLE TRECENTIS. PERSTET ET AETERNA PACE FRUATUR!

Trier stood before Rome for 1,300 years.
May it continue to exist and enjoy eternal peace!

Inscription on the Red House in Trier

Kalepa Bridge in the road to Hana, Maui Island, Hawaii (United States)

Heavenly Hana
Where tropic skies are blue
And angels rendezvous
This is paradise

Your beauty is nature’s jealousy
Caressed in ecstacy
Hana paradise

Lyrics from Heavenly Hana

by John Watkins

Bridge over the Moselle River in Traben-Trarbach, Rhineland-Palatinate (Germany)

Hail, great parent, fruitful and virtuous Moselle!
You are famous nobles, you are trained in war, youths
Your rival adorns you with the eloquence of a broad tongue
But also your manners and your cheerful stern brow
Nature has granted your students talent
Hail, river, praise the fields, praise the farmers »

Roman poet Ausonius

Saint-Marcel Bridge over the Canal de Midi in Le Somail, Aude (France)

"lI have passed through the Canal from it’s entrance into the mediterranean at Cette to this place, and shall be immediately at Toulouse, in the whole 200 American miles, by water; having employed in examining all it’s details nine days, one of which was spent in making a tour of 40 miles on horseback, among the Montagnes noires, to see the manner in which water has been collected to supply the canal"

Thomas Jefferson

about his visit to Canal du Midi

Illustration of Sheikh Isa Bin Salman Causeway between Bahrain Island and Muharraq Island (Bahrain)

Bahrain 's margin of freedom is growing day after day as we head into the future with steady steps.

Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa,

to whom this bridge owes its name