The Millau Viaduct, Located in southern France, is the highest bridge in the world, with an overall height of 336.4 meters. The Millau Viaduct on the A 75 motorway is among the most striking civil engineering structures built at the start of this century. The highest point of the multi-stayed viaduct is at 340 metres. It is a unique structure, 2,5 km long, crossing the Tarn Valley and forms part of the A 75 motorway which will link Clermont-Ferrand to Béziers and Montpellier (via the A 750 spur). The bridge connects the motorway from Paris to Barcelona at the point where it is interrupted by the Tarn River, which runs through a wide gorge between two plateaus, the Viaduct consists of seven separate cable-stays and at 2.5 kilometers long is currently the longest cable-stayed bridge in the world, each of its sections spans 350 meters and its columns range in height from 75 meters to 235 meters - higher than the Eiffel Tower - with the masts rising a further 90 meters above the road deck. To accommodate the expansion and contraction of the concrete deck, each column splits into two thinner, more flexible columns below the roadway, forming an A-frame above deck level. Structural Type:Cable-stayed bridge multicable, fan arrangement. Function / usage: Motorway bridge / freeway bridge. Construction 2001-2004. Opened for traffic December 16, 2004. Architect: Lord Norman Robert Foster. Designer: Michel Virlogeux. Cost: $ 300 Million. Photo by Jerome Brunet/ZUMA Press. © Copyright 2006 by Jerome Brunet