The roadway of Jerusalem’s Chords Bridge is supported by 66 steel cables.
Designed by Spanish architect and engineer Santiago Calatrava, the Chords Bridge is a side-spar cable-stayed bridge at Jerusalem’s western entrance. Its single mast rises about 118 meters and supports the deck with cables arranged in a three-dimensional parabolic pattern.
The bridge opened in 2008 and carries Jerusalem’s light-rail line, along with pedestrian traffic. Its cable array gives the structure its popular names, “Chords Bridge” and “Bridge of Strings,” because the cables suggest the strings of a harp.
A common mix-up is confusing the number of cables with the bridge’s dimensions. The bridge is about 360 meters long, while its principal span is roughly 160 meters; neither figure refers to the cable count.