The Pont de Normandie (or Bridge of Normandy) is a cable-stayed road bridge that spans the river Seine linking Le Havre to Honfleur in Normandy, northern France. Its total length is 2143.21 m (856 m between the 2 piers).

The bridge allows the Autoroute A29 to cross the Seine river.

The bridge was designed by Michel Virlogeux. The architects were François Doyelle and Charles Lavigne. Construction by Spie Batignolles began in 1988 and lasted 7 years. The bridge opened on January 20, 1995.

At that time the bridge was both the longest cable-stayed bridge in the world, and had the record for the longest distance between piers for any cable-stayed bridge. It was more than 250 m longer between piers than the previous record. This record was lost in 1999 to the Tatara Bridge in Japan. Its record for length for a cable-stayed bridge was lost in 2004 to the 2883 meters of the Rio-Antirio. At the end of construction, the bridge had cost $465 million.

The cable-stayed design was chosen because it was both cheaper and more resistant to high winds than a suspension bridge.

The span, 23.60 m wide, is divided into 4 lanes for traffic and 2 lanes for pedestrians. The pylons, made of concrete, are shaped as upside-down Ys. They weigh more than 20,000 tons and are 214.77 m tall. More than 19,000 tons of steel were used and 184 cables were used.

[Source: Wikipedia]

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