The Megyeri Bridge (, ), previously known as the Northern M0 Danube bridge, is a
cable-stayed bridge that spans the
River Danube between
Buda
Buda (, ) is the part of Budapest, the capital city of Hungary, that lies on the western bank of the Danube. Historically, “Buda” referred only to the royal walled city on Castle Hill (), which was constructed by Béla IV between 1247 and ...
and
Pest, respectively the west and east sides of
Budapest
Budapest is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns of Hungary, most populous city of Hungary. It is the List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, tenth-largest city in the European Union by popul ...
, the capital of
Hungary
Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...
.
It is an important section of the
M0 ringroad around Budapest.
The bridge cost 63billion
forints ( 300M) to build and was officially opened on September 30, 2008;
however, the National Transport Authority of Hungary has only issued temporary permits because of disagreement among suburban cities surrounding the bridge.
An online naming poll to determine the new name of the recently built bridge caused controversy and received media attention when American comedians
Stephen Colbert and
Jon Stewart won.
Gallery
Image:Megyeri híd2.jpg
Image:Megyeri bridge under construction.jpg
Image:Civertanmegyeri1.jpg
Image:Civertanmegyeri2.jpg
Image:Civertanmegyeri3.jpg
Image:Civertanmegyeri4.jpg
Image:Civertanmegyeri5.jpg
Image:Civertanmegyeri6.jpg
Technical information
The total length of the bridge is 1862m.
Structurally it is composed of five parts:
#Left quayside inundation area bridge: 148m
#Main Danube-branch bridge (cable stayed): 590m with a span of 300m
#
Szentendre Island inundation area bridge: 559m
#Szentendre Danube-branch bridge: 332m
#Right quayside inundation area bridge: 218m
Naming poll
The Ministry of Economic Affairs and Transport of
Hungary
Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...
organized a public vote online to solicit possible names for the new bridge. The three names with the most votes, as well as suggestions from local governments, cartographers, linguists and other experts, were to be reviewed by a government committee before a final name for the bridge was chosen. New nominations were accepted until August 21, 2006, and the voting ended on September 8, 2006.
On August 1, 2006, Reuters reported that the top candidate according to the online poll was the "Chuck Norris híd", named for American action star
Chuck Norris. (
Chuck Norris facts reached the height of their popularity around this time.) On August 9, 2006, American
satirist
This is an incomplete list of writers, cartoonists and others known for involvement in satire – humorous social criticism. They are grouped by era and listed by year of birth. Included is a list of modern satires.
Early satirical authors
*Aes ...
Stephen Colbert discussed the story on his comedy program ''
The Colbert Report'', instructing his viewers to visit the polling website and vote for him instead of Norris. On August 15, 2006, he repeated his call to be voted top of the Hungarian poll. The next day the number of votes for him had grown 230 times, and he now asked his viewers to follow a link from his own "Colbert Nation" website, to avoid "all that illegible Hungarian". Colbert's site also indirectly offered techniques for "stuffing the ballot box", as users of their
forums created several automated
scripts to cast multiple votes for Colbert. By August 22, 2006, the "Stephen Colbert híd" was in first with 17 million votes, about 14 million votes ahead of the second-placed ''Zrínyi híd'', named after the Croatian-Hungarian national hero,
Miklós Zrínyi, and about 7 million more than the entire population of Hungary. The same day, the site announced a new round of voting, which would require registration to participate, and Colbert asked his viewers to "call off the dogs", requesting on his website that fans stop using scripts to vote. Despite this, the "Stephen Colbert híd" remained in the top position on the website in the second round.
On September 14, 2006,
András Simonyi—the ambassador of
Hungary
Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...
to the United States—announced on ''
The Colbert Report'' that
Stephen Colbert had won the vote. Unfortunately for Colbert, Ambassador Simonyi declared that under Hungarian law, Colbert would have to be fluent in Hungarian, and would have to be deceased in order to have the bridge named for him. However, after saying the rules could most likely be bent, he invited Colbert to visit Hungary and view the construction in person and gave him a Hungarian passport and a
10,000 HUF Bill, with an approximate value of, as the ambassador put it, 'fifty dollars, fifty good US dollars'. Colbert promptly tried to bribe him with said money.
Results
Megyeri Bridge
On September 28, 2006, it was announced that the bridge will be named "Megyeri Bridge", even though that name did not make it to the second round. The Hungarian Geographical Name Committee justified the final name by explaining that the bridge connects
Káposztás''megyer'' and
Békás''megyer''.
See also
*
List of crossings of the Danube River
References
External links
Google Earth 3D model of the bridge
Photos of Budapest bridgesBloomberg articleComputer generated video of the Northern M0 Danube bridgeIndex.hu article
*
Aerial photographs of the bridge
{{The Colbert Report
Cable-stayed bridges in Hungary
Bridges in Budapest
Bridges over the Danube
Bridges completed in 2008
