Quiz: Famous bridges

This week’s quiz is all about bridges

1. Which famous landmark would you expect to see if you went to Lake Havasu in Arizona?

2. The Bridge of Sighs, built in 1600, is one of Venice’s premier tourist attractions. Why is it so named?

3. Which famous bridge is painted in a colour known as International Orange, most often used by NASA for all their space suits?

4. Which notorious unofficial record is held by the Nanjing Yangzte river bridge, with California’s Golden Gate Bridge in second place?

5. What, often described in secondary school physics books, has happened only once in recorded history with England’s Broughton Suspension Bridge in 1831 and created a well-known rule with most armies?

6. The Howrah Bridge is probably the most iconic bridge in India and easily the busiest. Which government organisation looks after the maintenance and repair of the bridge?

7. The Glienicke Bridge spans the Havel River, connecting Berlin with Potsdam. By what name has it been commonly known since the ’60s?

8. Fiction. On January 15, 3019, which two adversaries fought a famous duel on top of the Bridge of Khazad-Dum?

9. Which two famous bridges would you expect to come across in Muni Ki Reti in the Tehri Garhwal district of Uttarakhand?

10. Which 1930 play was made into a film starring Robert Taylor and Vivien Leigh in 1940 and was one of the biggest hits during the World War II, being nominated for two Academy Awards?

Answers

1. London Bridge. It was sold to a US developer and brought to America as a tourist attraction in the 1960s. A new ‘London Bridge’ was built in 1973.

2. It connects the Doge’s palace to the New Prison and was the place prisoners would get their last look at freedom. In fact Lord Byron suggested the name ‘Bridge of Sighs’ as an appropriate translation of the Italian Ponte dei sospiri

3. The Golden Gate Bridge. The ‘Golden’ comes from the Golden Gate Strait, not the colour of the bridge

4. Number of suicides. More than 2,400 people have died jumping off the Nanjing Bridge. The Golden Gate Bridge stopped keeping records to discourage copycats but has had at least 1,600 fatal incidents.

5. The bridge collapsing due to a resonance effect with the marching of the soldiers. Most armies insist that soldiers break step or rhythm while crossing a bridge

6. The Kolkata Port Trust. This is probably because they originally regulated the size of ships allowed to pass under the bridge

7. The Bridge of Spies, because of the numerous prisoner exchanges during the Cold War. Steven Spielberg used the same name for his 2015 film.

8. The wizard Gandalf and a demonic creature known as the Balrog. Gandalf managed to stop the Balrog but fell into the abyss with him

9. Ram Jhula, and the more famous Laxman Jhula, where the two mythological brothers were believed to have crossed. The modern versions were built in the late ’20s

10. Waterloo Bridge. It was a personal favourite of Vivien Leigh

_{Joy Bhattacharjya is a quizmaster and Project Director, FIFA U-17 World Cup}

_{Follow Joy on Twitter @joybhattacharj}

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