The Vasco da Gama Bridge is one of Portugal's most remarkable attractions. This is a cable-stayed bridge across the Tagus River northeast of Lisbon. The bridge was opened on March 29, 1998 and it is no coincidence that it has such an unusual name. On this day, the 500th anniversary of the opening of the route from Europe to India was celebrated by the great navigator Vasco da Gama. The bridge, named after the famous Portuguese explorer, attracted additional traffic from Spain to Lisbon (and vice versa) and allowed to unload the bridge on April 25th. It reduced environmental pollution, reduced traffic jams and congestion in Lisbon, and made it easier for tourists to travel between north and south of Portugal. Surprisingly, during the construction of the bridge, it was necessary to provide even a round shape of the earth's surface, since without this factor the height difference between the different ends of the bridge would be 0.8 meters! Today it is the longest bridge in Europe. Its length is 17 kilometers 200 meters. But in fact, its length above the water is a little less than 10 kilometers. Everything else is the land part, including access roads. The maximum speed on the bridge is 120 km / h, in bad weather the limit is 90 km / h. The lanterns of the bridge were specially designed so that their rays do not fall on the water. The result was an airy, fan-shaped and light creation, one of the new symbols of Lisbon and decoration for the Tagus River. The design of the bridge is designed to operate for 120 years, must withstand wind up to 250 km / h and earthquakes 4.5 times stronger than the famous Lisbon earthquake of 1755 (8.7 on the Richter scale). Six lanes are organized along Vasco da Gama bridge, and if necessary, during rush hours, two more additional lanes open on the largest bridge. Travel on the bridge is paid, but you need to pay only when driving to Lisbon.