Pont de Normandie, Cable-stayed bridge over the Seine estuary between Le Havre and Honfleur, France
Pont de Normandie is a cable-stayed road bridge across the Seine estuary, linking Le Havre with Honfleur. Its 2,141-metre structure carries an 856-metre cable-stayed span, of which the central 624 metres are steel; the deck is 23.6 metres wide. Two prestressed-concrete pylons shaped as inverted Ys rise 214.77 metres and weigh 20,000 tonnes each.
Construction began in 1988 and lasted seven years; the bridge opened on 20 January 1995. Designed by Michel Virlogeux, with architects François Doyelle and Charles Lavigne, it crossed the Seine between Le Havre and Honfleur with an 856-metre main span, then the world's longest for a cable-stayed bridge.
The bridge is the last crossing of the Seine before the river reaches the sea, and it replaced a ferry link between Le Havre and Honfleur. Its 184 stays were made by Freyssinet, the firm founded by prestressing pioneer Eugène Freyssinet; each stay bundles 31 to 53 steel strands.
The deck offers four lanes for vehicles as well as separate paths for bicycles and pedestrians on both sides. A toll station controls passage, and strong winds can occasionally make the crossing difficult for light vehicles.
The pylons must work only in compression, so they are vertical; because verticals converge at the Earth's centre, their tops stand about two to three centimetres farther apart than their bases. Each pylon weighs 20,000 tonnes, of which 11,700 tonnes are steel reinforcement alone.
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