Central bridge, Major road bridge in central Stockholm, Sweden
Centralbron is a 1,200-metre road link in central Stockholm made of two bridges: a southern steel-girder span of 189 metres over Söderström, opened in 1959, and a northern reinforced-concrete span of 246 metres over Riddarfjärden, opened in 1967. Between them the roadway runs along the eastern side of Riddarholmen, partly on a 173-metre viaduct above the Gamla stan metro station.
More than 20 different designs were proposed and rejected before a definitive plan was agreed in 1928. The bridge was built during a period of rapid traffic growth in Stockholm's core.
The name was made official in 1959 by a naming committee that expected an Österbron (Eastern Bridge) to be built, which would have made this one truly central; no eastern route has been realised. The narrow passage between Gamla stan and Riddarholmen, shared by road and rail traffic, is popularly called Getingmidjan, "the Wasp's Waist".
Centralbron is a heavily trafficked road link with roughly 130,000 vehicles a day, so it is crossed on foot or by bike only where marked paths allow. The speed limit was lowered from 70 to 50 km/h after a 2005 fatal accident and raised to 60 km/h in 2016. The narrow stretch between Gamla stan and Riddarholmen is nicknamed Getingmidjan, the wasp waist.
The bridge was built during a time when Stockholm was struggling to find solutions for increasing traffic volumes in the city center. Today it remains an overlooked part of the urban landscape that most visitors pass without noticing its engineering role.
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