Öresund Bridge, Malmö

I cross this bridge every Monday to Friday so to me it's a very natural part of life, but if you visit Malmö for the first time and maybe arrive via Copenhagen, you will be impressed. Still today, I sit on the train and feel priviliged to have such a wonderful commuter route compared to people who are stuck in an underground system or through miles of suburbia. In summer, I can observe all the various weather systems - from total fog to storms to gorgeous sunshine to mysterious summer morning haze...:-) I can clearly make out Barsebäck nuclear power station on one side and Falsterbo canal on the other and as we approach Kastrup, huge planes sometimes come in to land at Copenhagen. In winter darkness, I can press my head against the window and see all the red and green lights of the shipping lane in the strait. I was very much against this bridge before, thinking that its construction would obstruct the flow of necessary oxygen into the Baltic Sea, but so far, it hasn't happened. It may be more romantic to go by boat and it's a shame they are all gone, but commuters could be stuck for ages in winter fog and never get to work that way. This bridge was constructed to show the rest of Europe what two small countries could achieve and it DOES show just that.

This bridge is simply a different kind of a bridge though - connecting two countries instead of two shores, two peoples instead of two roads... The bridge has a huge role in lives of around 4 million people who live in København, Malmö & the surroundings. The two cities are very much connected & you can actually feel it. For example, København's airport Kastrup is closer to Malmö than Malmö's own Sturup, which makes it easier to go to Malmö after the arrival rather than Copehnagen. Over 7000 Swedes & Danes cross the bridge every day to work, do their shopping, buy alcohol aso. It connects the Danish region Sjælland [Zealand in English (the islands of Lolland, Falster & Bornholm)] with the Swedish region Skåne [Scania in English (with Malmö as the third biggest city in the country)]. The five-years-ago created Øresund region with its 20 universities, 140 000 students & 12 000 researchers has turned into one of Europe's major centres for science & research - just to point out the importance of the bridge to whole southern Scandinavia... ;)

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The Øresundsbron consists of two levels: the upper one for the motorway & the lower one for the railway. The artificial island Peberholm is 4 km long & it was created to enable turning a part of the bridge into a 4 km long underwater tunnel that would enable the passage to stay open at one part, not disabling any possible oversized ships to pass. The cable-stayed bridge is 8 km long & 204 m high.

The construction was imagined as an economical, cultural & mental bridge across the region built by a Danish-Swedish company jointly owned by the Danish & Swedish states called Øresundsbro Konsortiet. The construction started in 1995 & it was opened in Jul 2000. Since then a total of more than 12 000 vehicles & 50 thousand people cross it daily or 4.5 million vehicles & 19 million people yearly! Although the traffic across the bridge still rises for approximately 11% a year, it is not expected for the bridge to be fully paid for until 2035.

Copenhagen [2.3 million inhabitants] & Greater Malmö [incl. Lund & Trelleborg] together count over 3.5 million people, which makes the Øresund region the largest urban area in Scandinavia, the size of Hamburg or Birmingham, Germany and the UK’s third largest urban areas. Of course, the ares is expected to grow economically in the future, which will make it the fastest growing part of both countries.

The Oresund Bridge links Malmo to Copenhagen by road and rail. We took the train, journey time around 20 minutes. Travelling this way you see very little of the bridge itself as the rail line is below the road. Just caught a glimse out of the plane window on our way home, looks impressive.

Öresund Bridge is one of Europe's largest bridges. It has a length of 7845 meters (4.9 miles)+ 558 meters (0.35 miles) of viaduct at the Pepparholm Island.
I was here when the bridge was opened in 2000 and I crossed it in 2003.

Try the new bridge between Denmark and Sweden! It's been 7000 years since we were joined the last time...
Copenhagen, the Danish capital, and Sweden's third largest city, Malmo, is only about a 20 minute journey, via the Øresund Bridge, which cuts the former ferry commute by nearly an hour.