GREECE PELOPONNESE ACHAIA RION BRIDGE

A bridge near Patras linking Rion on the Peloponnese with Antirion on mainland Greece, was already envisioned in the 19th century. However, there were serious difficulties to overcome: the water in the straits is quite deep (up to 65 m), the seabed is mostly of loose sediment, and due to plate tectonics the straits expand at a rate of about 3 cm per year, earthquakes in this region being quite frequent! Therefore, work was not begun until the 1990s, when the only acces to the Peloponnese was by ferry or via the isthmus of Corinth at its eastern end.

The Rion-Antirion bridge (officially "Charilaos Trikoupis bridge" after the 19th century statesman who first envisaged it), with its length of 2,880 meters is the longest fully suspended cable-stayed bridge of the world, widely praised as a masterpiece of engineering. It was inaugurated on August 7, 2004, one week before the opening of the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens. Olympic torchbearers were the first to officially cross its length, one of them being Otto Rehhagel, the German football coach who won the Euro 2004 Championships for Greece.

Above: Views of the bridge from the hospital in Patras. - Below left: Old meets new - the bridge behind the fortress. - Below right: A view from high above Patras.