American Reacts to Millau Viaduct: The World's Tallest Bridge 

It's pronounced "me-yo". :)

Hello! I have been crossing this bridge 2 to 3 times a year for the past 10 years. It's always an experience every time we know the weather, and let's go south or north. When you go down from north to south, you see the bridge from several kilometers away. It appears in the distance and disappears behind hills. When you go up from south to north, you never see him until the last moment at the bend of a last bend. It's a unique and fantastic experience every time.

France is full of tollroads. But if you don't want to use them there is the Route National which is full of roundabouts.

Abother interesting bridge is the Rion Antiryon in Greece, over the Corinthe straight. Was designed by French engineers and can whisthand earthquakes (it did even during its construction). It's special features are pillars that actually slide on a gravel base, the bridge is suspended in four concret towers and swings when shaken by Earthquakes to cancel the move from the towers. THe swinging is dampened by hydraulic dampeners and some of them are designed to break if needed, if the Earthquakes goes above a certain threshold, the breaking mechanism is made with a bronze pin designed to break at a given tension.

When I was younger, I saw it being built. All the way down in the valley. I thought we drove into a sciencefiction movie or something. It was so big, and it wasn’t finished yet. It looked like something from another world. We often drove to the south of France for the holidays.

Il y a une chose dont cette vidéo ne parle pas, il s'agit de l'effet de la "précontrainte". Celle-ci s'exerce horizontalement sur les tabliers par des câbles métalliques qui sont boulonnés les uns aux autres et tendus en fonction des contraintes de serrage. Les piliers et les câbles de suspension annulent le poids des tabliers. Si un papillon se pose sur le pont, le poids du tablier ne sera que celui du papillon. De plus, les tabliers ont une forme aérodynamique absolument remarquable. Les piliers et câbles ne servant alors qu'à absorber le poids du trafic routier et de certains des aléas climatiques. Notre pays n'est pas grand mais notre savoir-faire est immense. Pour répondre à votre question, oui ce viaduc est agréable à traverser. La première fois que je l'ai utilisé, j'avais l'impression d'être en plein ciel assis sur un tapis volant. Confort absolu. Et s'il est payant, il faut savoir qu'un partie des recettes revient à la ville de Millau. One thing this video doesn’t talk about is the effect of "prestressing". This is exercised horizontally on the decks by metal cables that are bolted to each other and tensioned according to the tightening constraints. The pillars and suspension cables cancel out the weight of the aprons. If a butterfly lands on deck, the weight of the deck will only be that of the butterfly. In addition, the aprons have an absolutely remarkable aerodynamic shape. The pillars and cables were then used only to absorb the weight of road traffic and some of the climatic hazards. Our country is not big but our know-how is immense. To answer your question, yes, this viaduct is pleasant to cross. The first time I used it, I felt like I was in the sky sitting on a flying carpet. Absolute comfort. And if it is paying, you should know that part of the revenue goes to the city of Millau.

Skeptics over the world : "it won't work, no chance !" British architect : "hold my beer" French companies : "hold our béret, baguette and croissant"

I've driven across the Millau viaduct a number of times and it is great. The only problem is that you don't really have a view from it because the wind protection barriers are quite high. The autoroute there is free except for the toll bridge. It is still a tourist attraction with a visitor center down in the valley where you can see it properly and learn about the construction. It is also illuminated at night.

Hi Charlie, French person here. Using the viaduc still costs 13.9 euros (15 dollars) for a light vehicle. It's quite expensive but is such a time saver that its popularity will never decrease.

Nowadays the toll for the bridge is 13.90€ in summer and 10.90€ otherwise. 36.30€ for a truck. The bridge is a cash cow for the Eiffage company : Annual profit was 29 million euros in 2021 and it will last until 2079 ! The bridge may become toll free in 2080... The bridge was designed to last at least 120 years.

My eyes did kinda pop out when I first saw the scope of the project involved. Amazing how some people can make the impossible possible, and what can you do other than have huge respect for them. Meeting in the middle only millimetres out of alignment was spectacularly impressive. Also loved the fact that ancient Egyptians and Archimedes got to have a shout out too. For the scale, it’s beautifully unobtrusive, and I really enjoyed the presentation.

I cross the Millau viaduc on a foggy day. It was amazing. I was driven on a cloud sea with a wonderfull sunny sky above me !

I went to my grand-mother north of Millau almost on a monthly basis. I saw it being built step by step, and there was a model you could make of the bridge in cardboard or paper. It was impressive, but more importantly once it was finished it cut the travel by over half an hour *if you avoided the viaduc*, or an hour if you used it. Also, it did not kill Millau at all, on the contrary. It's now possible to cross Millau in something like 10 minutes, in summer. Before the viaduc, it was faster to walk across town than to drive through it. There were large trucks going through the town. The town is much more agreable nowadays. They still charge for crossing it. Depending on your vehicle, the price goes from 6.5€ (for a bike) to 46€ (for a large truck). Cars are between 11 and 13€ depending on the season (summer is more expensive).

Hello, I come from Belgium, it is not only French but people from Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Denmark, the United Kingdom who take this bridge to reach the south of Europe.

At 2:44, I'm lucky to have been born and to have lived in the beautiful city of PERPIGNAN, the most beautiful region and the most varied in landscape in the south of France. In less than one hour's journey, you can go from sandy beaches for swimming in the Mediterranean Sea to the highest mountains of the Pyrenees for skiing. ^^

J'ai travaillé sur le viaduc de Millau, j'ai travaillé sur la pile 6 et la plus haute pile 2 qui était à 250 mètres de haut. Un jour ou le président Chirac était sur le site personne travaillait, â part les alpinistes qui enlevaient les gardes corps, j'effectuais une tache à 40 cm du bord sans harnais de sécurité et sans protection, à l'époque j'étais ouvrier😅. Pour la prononciation c'est me-yo en anglais.

There is an old saying here that goes "Impossible n'est pas français" (Impossible is not french). Another says "on n'a pas de pétrole, mais on a des idées" (we don't have oil, but we have ideas). Well... it was the 80's... As for the prices... They still charge for it, same as for all highways. Long ago, highways were free. In the 60's, tolls started to be created in places in order to pay for the development by the government of a denser highway network. Now, highways are owned by private companies and prices continue to rise. Partly because private companies are out to make ever more money for themselves (which is why we hate the fact that our nationalized companies and infrastructures are being privatized more and more). And partly because the government wants to make life very expensive for those who rely on classical cars rather than public transportations or electric vehicules. It is for the sake of ecologic transition. Tolls for electric vehicules are much cheaper now. It is to push people to stop polluting. I consider it to be a good thing overall, personally. Oil lobbies do not dicate everything yet as is the case in the USA and the UK.

Gefyrologists - from Ancient Greek gefyra = bridge and logos = theory. But actually, they simply are bridge engineers.

Concrete indeed forms naturally. It's a mixture of cement, sand and water, where the cement while curing forms calcium hydrosilicate needles between the grains of sand, connecting them and forming an artificial stone. Sandstone is a kind of natural concrete, but the mixture is seldom optimal with far to high amounts of sand and not enough cement, hence sandstone is rather soft compared to concrete.

Been across it once with my mam driving, not for the faint of heart as she was terriefied of heights! On our way back we actually went back via the long way as she refused to drive across it again!

I'm a truck driver here in europe.. I have been over the Milau Viaduct dozens of times... I can confirm, even till this day, there is a toll... I think its arround 13Euros or 15$ for the cross... and thats for regular cars... trucks pay a bit more... but, even so, its still a bargain... because if you were to go arround, you would drive an extra 20km, and you would go up and down the valley, and you will have to slow down because of the town... overall you would pay more money on the extra gas that your car woukd consume, if you were to take the long way... not to mention the extra hour lost by doing so... so the 15$ toll is quite a bargain... and I belive some of that toll helps the comunity of Millau... so, if you thought the town of Millau would not benefit from the bridge because everone would now avoid the town, then you are wrong... the town of Millau benefits a lot from the bridge... more so then before... Also the view of the town of Millau from driving on it, is breathtaking... allthough, I would recomand focusing on driving rather then sightseeing... but, on one side of the valley, where the viaduct begins, there is a parking lot, with an overhead tarrace, where you can admire the view of the valley, the town of millau and the viaduct itself... In fact when driving southband (aka from north to south, or from Paris to Montpellier), you begin a long descent from the plateau... and you can see the viaduct from 30km(20miles) away... if you drive from the oposite direction, you wont see the viaduct untill less then 1km... thats because the view is obstructed by the canyon edge... Still, the Viaduct of Millau is an amaizing bridge... no major accidents have ever occured on it... and, probably never will, since its got a lot of safty mecanisms in place... even if you want to drive over the bridge to commit suicide, it would be quite imposible... since the edge of the road is protected by steel bars, then 3m away is a second barier that is taller and can even stop a semi truck in its tracks... to this day, not a single car has fallen off the bridge... so its verry safe to driver across...

I crossed this bridge....it is just incredible, the technicality to build it must have been incredibly difficult, and when you travel on the bridge you quickly understand the feat that was the construction of this bridge.

We have the distinct advantage of not being subject to big earthquakes or tornados, so it's easier for us to "take the risk" to build something like that.

12:24 Concrete is a mix of cement (heated and ground down limestone and clay with gypsum added) and an aggregate (a binder) like sand, rocks and other stuff. Then you add water to that mix. So it’s quite complex and is the result of multiple steps, that’s why it’s not simply an occurrence in nature. I think they mean that they had massive quantities of the dry mix on site and were continuously making wet concrete instead of being delivered.

I was born and live in Millau 😊 that bridge is majestic !

10:16 Nobody would be driving with 80mph wind. But they had to design the bridge to be able to sustain it without damage because that could happen.

I had the chance once to pass over this bridge while the clouds were arriving at the level of the deck, it was like being in a cartoon with this road placed on the clouds

If I may, the biggest challenge is the win frequency more than the speed of the wind. If you have a win wave with the right frequency it will destroy the bridge. To avoid this issue, they set the same distance between pilars and use only one range of cables. The cables allowed to put the concrete always in compression ( and decrease the weight of the bridge due the decrease of steal needed)

Went many times, it's always a very nice experience when going south, to see it appearing from far away, further than it seems at the beginning. You think "oh, we're soon there", and in fact you're not.. Fun fact : to check the bridge, they loaded it whith a lot of 40 tons lorries, one behind the other one, to check how it reacted under the vehicles wheight. I don't remember exactly how many, but it went down many centimeters down under the load ... as expected by the computing.

Hey ! Nice video ! I was actually born in Millau, and I've crossed the bridge many times before. We still have to pay to cross it (it became more pricy over the years). Now, to cross it's around 15 USD. A thing that I think the youtuber didn't say in the video is that the bridge is not straight, it's curvy. You can look at Millau Viaduct photos on the internet to see :)

Crossed it multiple times when going on holidays in the south, le Viaduc de Millau is one of the best and most impressive French construction in modern history :) The company that built it is Eiffage, the same one who made the Eiffel tower.

Watched this magnificent structure being built over a few years. Travelled over it a few times. In terms of time saved on journeys I wonder how they justified it, but in terms of structural engineering it really is a wonder of the world

thanks for the video Sam Worthington 😁

I've driven on it a few times. What's great is that you can it from the distance. It's a shame we can't stop on it to admire the view !

Yes they still charge a lot for this (I paid 20 € one-way two or three years ago) but it's gigantic, a fantastic project, and there's a twist: the rest of the highway is free, which makes it competitive with other ways to reach Paris...All in all a win-win-win solution: cash cow for the builder, very useful infrastructure, lots of PR, and another tourist attraction.

I'm french. I never crossed it yet. However my gran parents and my aunt crossed it.. and they were really impressed. It remains a fantastic bridge. PS : to be pronounced mee-yo

hey, I go there 4 times a month, last week I rode on it again! still impressive even after so many years

Merci pour cette vidéo ! Les régions françaises, le monde rural français, ne sont pas assez exposés, mis en lumière !

This 3.3-kilometre crossing brings Eiffage more than 20 million euros per year

I've already taken this bridge on a motorcycle, and it's really impressive. We have a different visual of the car. On the other hand, we are lighter, so we feel the gusts of wind from the valley. If you want to see a detailed documentary of this bridge, find the page of Richard Hammond (Top Gear UK), he will show you the interior and the technologies used. Happy viewing

Today it is a toll road. It is the property of Eiffage during 99 (not sure) years. After that it will be the property of the state. Yes it is a piece of art. I was like a child in wonderland when visiting this masterpiece.

To pronounce Millau for english spoken folks, says "Me Yo"

I remember the view, it was gorgeous!!! But I also remember the toll price and that wasn't...

20 years anniversary : @Millau from 3 to 22 septembre 2024. 🎂

Super interesting. Thanks

For the concrete made on site, I asusme this mean they had their own concrete mixers. Usually for ordinary construction works, the building company orders concrete in a «concrete factory» and they send the famous spinning cement trucks picking it up. The issue is this a truck is delayed, the properties of the concrete are going to change. Also the factory may not have the most tight quality control. For something likke the Millau Viaduct, the extra expense of having to make their own concrete was probably considered less of an issue than the viaduct failing because Robert at quality control was asleep and let a batch of bad concrete leave the factory.

Had a choice to cross it..voted for the longer drive down the valley! Can't even endure the thought of the height!! 😮

I am french, but I live more east, therefore it is not onb my usual route toward south. at the beginning, when you have the 4 routes, mine is the most east one. But I have familly that crosses it every now and then. it is expensive but saves quite some time. in the height of summer it saves a traffic jam of about 4-5 hours. definitely worse 8 dollars End there is a free viewing point with the toll and a small "museum showing some of stuff and pictures of the construction", they made it an attraction to even attract more tourist. As it is quite a beautiful thing, they are right to show it properly.

If the piers are a taper, basically a point, all the tops of the piers need to be in line to support the cable. Unless you will put more sideways strain than calculated for.

No, just because the bridge payed for itself it's not alöl profity from the tolls, the bridge still needs maintenance ffs........ 🙄😴🤦

yes they still charge for it...and yes it's still 10 euros or so, the thing is no one force you to take it...don't want to pay, take the old road go down on the valey and back up on the plateau, takes more time but it's free. I always take the bridge, have to do it like one or two time a year and i'm more than happy to pay for it, it's impressive and cool to drive across every time :)

Natural concrete exists, it's more or less sandstone ("grès" in french).

I was born in " St Affrique " I'am so proud of this video.

This viaduc is the most impressive ... I've drive on this one and to see the clouds under your car it's magic, and for this magic 12,50€ and save 2h on your travel it's few.

Yeah I live in Albi not that far from Millau and they still charge for it ( at the toll ).

My father will detour, sometimes unreasonably, every single time he gets to travel anywhere near Millau viaduct.

The French love building big things... ^^'

Le pont de Millau est sans aucun doute le plus beau du monde !

not cheap .. but i still enjoy the experience each time and i find it to be on par with the incredible lanscape around ... maybe in some ways enhancing it !?

More than the tallest, he's so beautifull

Je suis déjà passer dessus quand je trailler avec un forain dans le coin, le principal problème ces les touristes qui s'arrête au milieux de la route et le basejump.

today it's almost 14€ to cross the viaduc, i cross them this morning with my truck =)

Millau.... "Mi" as Midtown, next sound is "ye" as the Y of the word Yield for the double L, and "au" sound as o sound as the first o in the word Monitor

Yeah, they still charge for this!

Effectivement on ne voit pas le vide,mais c est fait exprès pour le vent et aussi pour éviter la peur du vide.on aurait des voitures et des camions quittant la route attiré par le vide.....😅

Built by the Belgians 🖤💛❤️

Bonjour d'Occitanie (France) Le béton ce fait avec comme ingrédients de ciment (pas très naturel), de granulats, d'eau et d'adjuvants (pas très naturel). Ils ont amené les ingrédients sur place et ils ont fait le mélange à ce moment là, c'est une garantie d'avoir un béton de meilleure qualité, c'est plus simple et rapide que d’amener le béton à couler d'un autre site, le viaduc désenclave la vallée d'une certaine manière, il y a même un petit observatoire pour les touriste au pied, ou presque, avec un petit musée. Je suis passée dessus, superbe vue, mais ont ne pouvait pas s'arrêter pour mieux l'admirer, nous avons quitté le viaduc pour allée voir le musée qui est dans la vallée. Le pont multi-haubané le plus haut du monde a été conçu pour résister à des vents violents de plus de 200 km/h. Par ailleurs, le viaduc est le pont le plus instrumenté de France. Piles, tablier, pylônes et haubans sont ainsi équipés d'une multitude de capteurs conçus pour déceler le moindre mouvement du viaduc. Il est surveillé et examiné très régulièrement, il faut payer pour le traverser, mais toutes les autoroutes en France sont payantes, donc cela ne nous semble pas anormal. Je pense que le tunnel sous la Manche est une prouesse, le canal du Panama aussi, il y a des prouesses techniques partout

"Have you drove across this thing?" ??

200m is smaller than the efeil tower

I crossed that bridge when I was like 15-16 in the car with my parents. I will never cross it again, as I'm afraid of hights and have to drive myself now.

Millau is pronounced Mee-yo [mi-'jo]. :)

This bridge have cam live

Je suis de Millau bienvenue

Pas mal hein? C'est Français 😏 ✌️👍

Hello ! Minnie, just go there and talk to the native. After this, you'd come back and leave a vid ...

Millau = me-yo

Meeyo.

Mill Ôo

Pas mal nan ? C’est Français

Hi, Charliie! 🌁 French pronunciation is easy once you remember a few basic rules. In the case of MILLAU: Two rules: A double "LL" is pronounced like an "I + J" in most other languages, in English the sound would be very close to the "Y" in Yes, Yesterday. The combination of "AU" is pronounced like "O" as in "For", "Or" etc. Btw, the combination of "EAU" is also pronounced like "O", as above. Eau, Bordeaux, (the x is not pronounced out loud.) P. S. In French there are a few more: eu, ou, œ, oi, oy, ay, ai, ...with their own pronunciations.

Above all, don't forget that we also make berets and baguettes.

maybe u 'll come higher , but u'll never come as cool !

you're welcome

I'll never understand that American thing consisting of... reading titles. You guys can read. Well, that's great, but we can too! Are you aware that's nothing impressive? More importantly: it's extremely annoying to have someone reading out loud, and slower than you can read.

So that's the new trend on YT ? A guy talking 25 mn about highly technical and scientifical issues he hasn't got a clue about ? Strange world. By the way dude, you could have succeeded in ONE thing : Pronoucing Millau properly, as the Englishman did. it's just MEE-YO. But you failed too.

After hearing "me-yo" you still pronounce "me-lo"?????? 🤡🤡🤡

I hate being nationalistic but this was designed by a Brit a fair swap as so much in UK is deigned and built by the French

Of course nobody watches the french videos :')