May 19, 1988
A box girder bridge off the western coast of France was officially opened. This 9,601-foot (2,926.5-meter) structure serves as a pivotal link between Ȋle de Ré, a French island in the Atlantic Ocean; and La Rocehelle, a city on France’s mainland.
The Ȋle de Ré Bridge was designed by structural engineer Michel Virlogeux (born in 1946). Virlogeux’s other professional accomplishments have included designing the Millau Viaduct in southern France; the Normandy Bridge in the country’s northern region; and the Vasco da Gama Bridge in Portugal.
Construction on the Ȋle de Ré Bridge was carried out by the Paris-based multinational conglomerate Bouygues S.A. This structure ranks second only to Saint-Nazaire Bridge, which has a total length of 11,010.5 feet (3,356 meters) and is also based in the western part of France, as the country’s longest bridge.
Photo Credit – Utilisateur: Pep.per (https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utilisateur:Pep.per); licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 1.0 Generic license at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/1.0/deed.en
For more information on the Ȋle de Ré Bridge, please check out https://eu-space.europa.eu/components/earth-observation-copernicus/image-of-day/ile-de-re-bridge-france
Transportation History 
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