Mega Bridge

That new picture you see is of a bridge at the south end of the city. Far away from the glory of the downtown lights and frequent tour boats and dinner cruises. I of course have shown you the beautiful pics of Rama VIII bridge. Single pier with glowing ribbons coming down on one side. That bridge was dedicated by the current king to his brother who was king previous to King Bhumibol Adulyadej who is Rama IX.

A pic of Rama VIII bridge in case you forgot.






So the VIII bridge is beautiful for sure. But take a look at the bridge in the header here. It was titled the Mega Bridge when under construction. It opened in 2006. Thai tradition has it that any bridge that crosses the Chao Phraya River is named after a member of the royal family, in this case the King himself, and therefore The Bhumibol Bridges 1 and 2.

This bridge is not to be confused with another bridge called Rama IX, which is located just a little west of the mega bridge. Rama IX was built and opened for the King's 60th birthday in 1987. At the time it was the second longest cable-stayed span in the world. To the right is a picture of the Rama  IX bridge crossing the river of kings.




But back to the mega bridge. This bridge is huge. Crosses the Chao Phraya river twice, has a little curly cue in the middle, like no other bridge I have ever seen. Live, we haven't done yet, or in pictures. We have had the opportunity to see both of these bridges in daytime from a building and they both look like they are one bridge because from this location you are looking down the river at both of them. At night the Bhumibol bridge is fantastic.

  It has mulit coloured lights changning up and down the spires, kinda like the CN tower does. Is it still called th cn tower?

There are numerous good pics of this bridge available but you have to understand why they called this the Mega Bridge.The Bhumibol Bridge, part of the Industrial Ring Road that connects Rama III Road to Poochao Samingphrai Road and Suksawat Road, was initiated by HM the King in 1995 with the aim of reducing traffic snarls in the area. A common Bangkok problem.
It crosses the river twice -- in the middle there is an interchange -- and has two cable-stayed spans of 702 meters and 582 meters. Bhumibol Bridge is supported by two majestic diamond-shaped pylons that are 173 meters and 164 meters high. Take a look at this aerial photo and you get an idea of the scale of these bridges! The interchange is huge, and the King decided to build an additional canal just beside the bridge to also help transportation of goods on the river.

Unfortunately, due to its scale and the nature of the industrial traffic, there is no pedestrian path on the bridge so crossing on foot or bicycle is prohibited. But that's okay, as the best views are gained from the ground.
So there are two bridges aptly named Bhumibol 1 and 2 (pronounced Poo-mi-poan, yeah I waited to the end to give ya that cause I know you were all saying bee-humee-ball, ahahahaha :-) now you have to go back and read it again!!)
Because the Chao Phraya river is the river of kings you get to see some majestic bridges crossing over.
Hope you enjoyed the latest installment of living in Bangkok.

 Sawasdee Krup