Saint-Nazaire bridge

From our beaches, you don’t have to look far: the Saint-Nazaire bridge reveals its imposing structure, majestic and elegant in the distance as you look out over the estuary. It was built to improve exchanges between the north and south of the Loire, since before it, 3 ferries enabled people to cross “to the other side of the water”.

It took 3 years to build, and the strong currents in the estuary did not make the work any easier (work began in March 1972). The bridge was inaugurated on October 18, 1975. With a length of 3,356m and a central span of 404m, the 720m-long metal structure held the world record for the span of a cable-stayed metal bridge for 8 years! The bridge is 68m high, to allow the passage of large ships to Nantes. The structure comprises two prestressed concrete access viaducts, 1,115m to the north and 1,521m to the south, and a 720m-long cable-stayed main steel structure.

From the outset, the presence of a toll to cross the structure aroused opposition. On the day of the inauguration, a thousand demonstrators blocked the access. As a result, no official ceremony was held! In 1992, the Loire-Atlantique General Council bought out the 130,000 shares held by the private company, for 104 million francs, and on October 1, 1994, the bridge became free of charge (16 years ahead of schedule).

The speed limit is 70km/h, and traffic is managed by a reversible system of bridge lanes, which allows a second lane to be assigned to the busiest direction of traffic throughout the day or according to specific events. This system is made up of reversing barriers, luminous red studs embedded in the pavement, and gantries supporting luminous signs to indicate the direction of traffic assigned to each of the three lanes.

From a sporting point of view, this bridge is the most unnatural climb in cycling! On the route of the Tour de France, this is the only climb whose origin is not natural (in 1993, 1997, 1999, 2000, …). In 2000, the Tour proposed a team time trial between Nantes and Saint-Nazaire, including a passage over the bridge. The Tour last crossed the bridge in 2011. For the past 2 years, the bridge has been closed for one morning at the end of September for the Foulées du Pont (10.2km race between Saint-Brévin and Saint-Nazaire).