A group of enthusiastic Dutch photographers were invited by Rijkswaterstaat (part of the Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and Watermanagement) to visit one of the busiest and iconic bridges in the Netherlands: the van Brienenoord bridge. The bridge was built in 1965 and has a span of almost 288 meters, the longest in the Netherlands! Every day, 250,000 cars cross the bridge where the two bridge decks (in total 3,500 ton) open only once or twice a day to let ships pass by. We were allowed inside the bridge to visit the heart of the lifting mechanism. The movable sections of the bridge are called ‘bascules’ and upon lifting they are temporarily stored in the 23,000m3 (!) large bascule basement. Have a look at the images and, like me, be amazed by the magnitude of this place. It almost looks like a huge containership, a spaceship or wherever your imagination takes you!. Thanks to Rijkswaterstaat for allowing us this very special and unique peek inside another Dutch icon of infrastructure.
