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WOW WOW WOW - these two bridges were built 2000 years apart and they are both AMAZING.
The Pont du Gard is an ancient Roman aqueduct bridge that crosses the Gardon River. It is part of the Mimes aqueduct, a 50 km long structure built by the Romans to carry water from a spring at UZES to Nimes. The terrain between the 2 points is hilly so the aqueduct was built mostly underground and took a long, winding route that crossed the gorge of the Garden. It was in the 1st century AD and is the highest of all Roman aqueduct bridges . It was added to UNESCO's list of world heritage sites in 1985 because of its historical importance.
We spent the afternoon here swimming and watching all the activity on the river, it was a wonderful afternoon and hard to leave, the sun was so warm and not burning like at home, we sate out in it for about 3 hours and not one bit of sunburn!!!!
Now the Millau Viaduct is another story!!! This is a cable stayed bridge that spans the valley of the River Tarn near the town of Millau where we stayed the night in southern France. This bridge was designed by the French structural engineers Michel Virlogeux and British architect Norman Foster. It is the tallest bridge in the world and one mast's summits is higher that the Eiffel Tower. It was so freaky driving across it, quite surreal. It cost 400 million euros to build - all for the motorcar!!! When will this stop. This bridge has been consistently ranked as one of the great engineering achievements of all time. So we drove over it, rode our bikes under it - it was incredible.
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