The Öresund or Øresund Bridge (Danish: Øresundsbroen, Swedish: Öresundsbron, joint hybrid name: Øresundsbron) is a double-track railway and dual carriageway bridge-tunnel across the Øresund strait between Scania (southernmost Sweden) and Denmark.
The bridge runs nearly 8 km (5 miles) from the Swedish coast to the artificial island of Peberholm, which lies in the middle of the strait. The remainder of the link is by a 4 km (2.5 mile) tunnel from Peberholm to the Danish island of Amager. The Øresund Bridge is the longest combined road and rail bridge in Europe, and connects two major metropolitan areas: Copenhagen, the Danish capital city, and the major Swedish city of Malmö. It connects the road and rail networks of Scandinavia with those of Central and Western Europe.
The international European route E20 crosses via the road, the Oresund Line via the railway. The construction of the Great Belt Fixed Link, connecting Zealand to Funen and thence to the Jutland Peninsula, and the Øresund Bridge have connected Central and Western Europe to Scandinavia by road and rail. The Øresund Bridge was designed by the Danish architectural practice Dissing+Weitling.
A cable-stayed bridge has one or more towers (or pylons), from which cables support the bridge deck.
There are two major classes of cable-stayed bridges: harp and fan.
In the harp design, the cables are nearly parallel so that the height of their attachment to the tower is similar to the distance from the tower to their mounting on the deck.
In the fan design, the cables all connect to or pass over the top of the towers. The fan design is structurally superior with minimum moment applied to the towers but for practical reasons the modified fan is preferred especially where many cables are necessary. In the modified fan arrangement the cables terminate near to the top of the tower but are spaced from each other sufficiently to allow better termination, improved environmental protection, and good access to individual cables for maintenance.
The cable-stayed bridge is optimal for spans longer than cantilever bridges, and shorter than suspension bridges. This is the range where cantilever bridges would rapidly grow heavier if the span was lengthened, and suspension bridge cabling would not be more economical if the span was shortened.