THE RECORD FACTS 
Longest LEGO BRIDGE: 29 METRES (1141 inch)
Biggest span:12,45 METRES (490 inch) 
NO steel, wood, ropes, glue etc.:100 % LEGO!!
Altitude: 4 metres (157 inch)
 Parts: ca. 200.000 
Weight: ca. 450 kilo
Ours of work: 350 h.

THE PREPARATION
As a member of the Dutch independent LEGO-club "de Bouwsteen" we've got the 
oppurtunity from LEGO Benelux to build the "GIBRALTAR LEGO BRIDGE". When we've 
got the green light the drawing and counting begins!  With help from the  TV-documentaire 
we made a work-drawing in scale 1 to 20 cm. In that scale the drawing is 1,5 metres wide! (59 
inch)  In the Brickshelf-folder you can see the drawings we made ("B-Gibraltar-bridge-
sideviews") With help of the first LEGO-designs (see the Brickshelfpictures "C-first-design 
frame and C-first-design-traindeck") and the scaled drawing we could decide the sorts and the 
numbers of the LEGO parts and make the order-list of ca. 250.000 parts, with a total weight 
of 650 kilos!

THE IDEA
The Project is inspired on the documentaire 'Engineering the impossible' seen on Discovery 
Channel in which the engineers want to span the Gibraltar Street with an enormous bridge of 
1 km (40000 inch) high and a total lenght of  ca. 14 km (550000"). This should be the highest 
and greatest bridge ever build.

The reason to use this bridge as inspiration is that this bridge has a huge span compared to the 
altitude, because  only 3 main towers can be placed due to the enormous depth of the 
Gibraltar Street. With the  LEGO bridge the depth isn't a problem, the altitude is. We create a 
similar problem: making a span as long as possible with a low altitude in proportion.

The designers solved this problem to combine two classic bridge-designs: the cable-stayed 
bridge and the suspension bridge. The main-towers with the revolutional 'diagonals' work as a 
cable-stayed bridge; Between the ends of the 'diagonals' the main cable of the suspension part 
is attached. De LEGO bridge has in contrast to the real project two in stead of three main 
towers.

THE SHOW
When after a lot of work all the LEGO compartments were ready, the exciting Try-out day 
begins: Will the LEGObridge hold it's 12,45 metres long traindeck? In the "Try-out-day 
pictures" you will notice that after 8 hours building with 4 people the bridge works! Who 
would have thought that? Minimal alterations and improvements were made and the bridge is 
displayed on the big LEGO-event in Zwolle, the Netherlands, called LEGOWORLD.
The bridge is shown on national television in three different programs and it's pictures 
occured in many papers. What a great project. Enjoy the pictures!

Benny Efde (Stanley Efu) and Marco de Vries