Oresund Connection

The Øresund Connection is a combined road and railway link between Copenhagen in Denmark and Malmö in Sweden that extends 16 kilometers (10 miles) across the strait. The installation consists of a cable-stayed high bridge, an artificial island called Peberholm, and an underwater tunnel that passes beneath shipping lanes.

Construction started in 1995 and finished in 2000, when the two countries had been reachable only by ferry for centuries. Completion changed the region permanently by creating the first continuous land route between Scandinavia and Central Europe.

The name Øresund comes from the old Norse term for the strait that has separated Denmark and Sweden for centuries. Commuters cross the link daily, and new residential areas have grown on both sides where people work and live without noticing national borders in everyday life.

The crossing takes you over the bridge, across the island, and through the tunnel in under 20 minutes, starting at sea level and then diving below the water. At the Danish coast, the installation disappears into the depths to allow aircraft to land at nearby Copenhagen Airport.

The Drogden Tunnel is the largest immersed tube tunnel in the world by volume, with a cross-section of 40 meters (130 feet) in width and 3.7 kilometers (2.3 miles) in length. The tunnel sections were prefabricated on land, lowered to the seabed, and joined together piece by piece.