After decades of dreaming, Italy has once again set its sights on building the longest suspension bridge in the world to connect the Italian mainland with the island of Sicily. Their vision is a bridge that stretches around 3,300 meters (10,800 feet) over the Strait of Messina, the thin strip of sea between the “toe” of Italy’s boot in Calabria and Sicily’s Metropolitan City of Messina.
If built, its suspension span would be around 60 percent longer than that of the world’s current longest suspension bridge, the 2,023-meter (6,637-foot) long 1915 Çanakkale Bridge in Turkey.
However, there should be a lot of emphasis on that “if”. Discussions about linking Sicily to Italy have rumbled on since the time of the Romans – and little real progress has been made since.
There’s an often-cited account by Pliny the Elder, the Roman thinker and army commander who died in the 79 CE eruption of Mount Vesuvius, that claims a temporary bridge was placed across the Strait of Messina to transport war elephants captured in 251 BCE from Carthage in North Africa. Whether that’s mere legend or not, the idea has never died.
The project was first re-imagined in the 1860s amidst the unification of Italy and continually caught the imagination of Italian politicians throughout the latter half of the 20th century.
In 2002, the late media tycoon-cum-Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi restarted the call for the grand bridge, boldly proclaiming that the first stone would be laid in 2004 and it would be completed by 2010. Spoiler alert: it was never built. Berlusconi launched the idea again in 2009, but it was scrapped in 2013 due to budget cuts.
More recently, the dream of the Strait of Messina Bridge has been reignited by the string of right-wing populist governments that have taken the helm in Italy.
In one of the more significant steps, a plan to construct the bridge was formally revived with a decree by the cabinet of Giorgia Meloni in March 2023.
Describing it as a “historic day for the whole of Italy", the government argued the infrastructure development would create tens of thousands of jobs while providing Italy’s southernmost regions with more economic opportunities. They believe they can deliver the project in just 15 years with a budget of €12 billion ($12.9 billion).
As ever, the plan has proved controversial. Opposition parties have claimed there’s been a lack of transparency behind the project’s funding with some critics raising concerns about potential involvement from the Mafia. Environmentalists and some scientists have also said the proposal is risky since the region is a hotspot of seismic activity and prone to earthquakes.
Never one to let reality nor history get in the way of a good plan, the government is going ahead with all guns blazing.
"Let the Left get over it: the bridge will be built and it will be the pride of the whole of Italy,” Matteo Salvini, Italy’s infrastructure minister and leader of the far-right League coalition party, recently said according to ANSA press agency.
"Full steam ahead!" he boasted.
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