Vebjørn Sand Da Vinci Project

Historie

The Vebjørn Sand da Vinci Project built a laminated-wood parabolic-arch pedestrian bridge in Norway over European route E18 in Ås, Norway, in 2001. It was a partnership between the Norwegian Public Roads Administration and Norwegian painter and artist Vebjørn Sand, who headed the project. The resulting da Vinci Bridge is one of several installations that Sand is known for in Norway.HistoryOriginal designLeonardo da Vinci proposed a bridge 366m long, overall and 24m wide over the Golden Horn in 1502 for Sultan Bayezid II of Constantinople (today’s Istanbul). The sketch and letter proposal were lost for over 400 years before being rediscovered in 1952. The proposed bridge included a 240m "pressed bow" main span with 43m of vertical clearance to allow ships to pass. da Vinci bragged that "it has been intention to erect a bridge from Galata (Pera) to Stambul… across the Golden Horn (‘Haliç’), but this has not been done because there were no experts available. I, your subject, have determined how to build the bridge. It will be a masonry bridge as high as a building, and even tall ships will be able to sail under it." The sketch was confirmed to be a genuine work of da Vinci by comparison with an identical sketch in Manuscript L, part of the Paris Manuscripts stored in the Institut de France in Paris.