Middelfart · DK

New Little Belt Bridge

The New Little Belt Bridge (Danish: Den nye Lillebæltsbro) is the great grey suspension span that stitches mainland Jutland to the island of Funen across the Little Belt strait. Opened by King Frederik IX on 21 October 1970 after five years of construction, it carries three motorway lanes in each direction on the E20 and, at 1,700 metres long with a 600-metre main span, was a landmark of modern Danish engineering. Unlike most sights, this one is experienced from a distance and from below: from clifftops, beaches, the harbour and the water, where its towers and cables frame the strait. Set beside the town of Middelfart, the bridge shares the strait with the elegant 1935 Old Little Belt Bridge, and together the two give the area its nickname, "the city of bridges." For visitors the bridge is the starting point for a whole landscape: Denmark's largest marine nature park, the porpoise-rich Little Belt, coastal hiking trails and the once-a-year festival that turns the grass under the span into a concert stage.