Erasmusbrug

The Erasmusbrug (English: "Erasmus Bridge") is a combined cable stayed and bascule bridge, construction began in 1986 and was completed in 1996. It crosses the Nieuwe Maas in the centre of Rotterdam, connecting the north and south parts of this city, second largest in the Netherlands. The bridge was named in 1992 after Desiderius Erasmus, a prominent Christian Renaissance humanist also known as Erasmus of Rotterdam. The Erasmus Bridge is Rotterdam's most important landmark and is even part of the city's official logo.

The bridge across the New Meuse was designed by Ben van Berkel and completed in 1996. The cable stayed bridge section has a single asymmetrical pale blue pylon with a prominent horizontal base, earning the bridge its nickname "The Swan". The southernmost span of the bridge has an bascule bridge for ships that cannot pass under the bridge. The bascule bridge is the largest and heaviest in Western Europe and has the largest panel of its type in the world. After costing more than 165 million Euros to construct, the bridge was officially opened by Queen Beatrix on September 6, 1996. Shortly after the bridge opened to traffic in October 1996, it was discovered the bridge would swing under particularly strong wind conditions. To reduce the trembling, stronger shock dampers were installed.

[[File:Erasmusbrug (15284241616). jpg|thumb|The bent pylon of the Erasmus Bridge with 16 pairs of front stay cables and 2 sets of back stay cables; back stay cables attached at the minimal height of the third front stay, limiting the cantilever of the upper front cables at the top of the pylon. In the subsequent engineering feasibility study, a number of significant design changes were made. Most importantly, live loads, like 60 ton trucks, would introduce tremendous bending forces into the backward leaning pylon; therefore back stays were added to minimize bending forces. The 150 m high concrete pylon was changed to a 139 m high steel pylon. The overall appearance of the bridge design remained intact, however, which proved to be the decisive factor for its selection. In November 1991, the city council chose the highly ambitious backward leaning bent pylon shape and made available the necessary additional funds for the asymmetric bridge.

The bridge featured in the 1998 Jackie Chan film Who Am I?. In 2005, several planes flew underneath the bridge as part of the "Red Bull Air Race". The bridge is also part of The World Port Days in Rotterdam. In 2005, the bridge served as the backdrop for a performance by DJ Tiësto titled "Tiësto @ The Bridge, Rotterdam". The performance featured fire fighting ships spraying jets of water into the air in front of the bridge, a fireworks barge launching fireworks beside the bridge, and multi colored spot/search lights attached to the bridge itself. The bridge was crossed during the prologue and the opening stage of the 2010 Tour de France It was also crossed during the second stage of the 2015 edition. The bridge features during an interval act at the Eurovision Song Contest 2021 in the grand final by Dutch DJ Afrojack called “Music Binds Us”.