The Old Jøl Bridge in Strynsfjellet, Norway

there are countless of interesting sights to see when driving the mountain roads in Norway. most of them are of the nature but there are lots of interesting points regarding the road itself, especially the historic ones built in the late 1800 and early 1900s. the mountains present many different challenges when building a new road even with today's technology but back in the olden days they still built roads. sometimes it is difficult to conceive how they managed.

one example is the Jøl Bridge built as a stone-vault bridge over the Jøl Gorge. the gorge is so narrow it seems one could almost jump across it if given a suitable place to jump from and landing. yet in 1883 when it was completed it was the most expensive bridge built in Norway

though surprisingly narrow the gorge is exceptionally deep and steep and to me it seems almost inconceivable to build a bridge in such terrain. but they did and the bridge has held up excellently over the years. it's actually constructed as a curve in the winding mountain road

but as traffic had increased so much by the 1970s a new wider bridge was constructed with modern techniques. the new bridge is not remarkable regarding engineering and design but being located beside the old bridge it does provide an excellent spot to view how impressive the old bridge is- with a view all the way down to the bottom of the gorge with white water roaring through