Ponte di Messina. Concorso internazionale di idee per il ponte sullo Stretto di Messina

In 1969 the Italian Ministry of Public Works organised an international ideas competition for a bridge spanning the Strait of Messina. The group led by Sergio Musmeci developed a project for a suspended bridge, with a 3 km deck and two 600 m high pylons. The project featured a highly innovative suspension system designed to reinforce the structure in the vertical plane to allow for the passage of vehicles and trains, and horizontally, to resist wind shear and limit deformations. This tensile structure with its two steel antennae rises up at the boundary between the sea and the two coasts. The antennae serve as the support points for a system of suspension cables attached to a 2 km central deck and two end pieces, each 500 m in length.