I just watched X-Men 3 again on Sunday - how exactly is a detatched suspension bridge supposed to remain intact? Grumble, grumble. . . As a result, this story on the Golden Gate at Wired.com caught my eye - but I was more intrigued by this pictorial tour of beautiful bridges. Bridges truly are the jewels of human ingenuity!
The Magdeburg Water Bridge is pretty wild, but this one (above) is my favorite:
The Gateshead Millennium pedestrian and bicycle bridge crosses the River Tyne between Newcastle and Gateshead in northern England. It's both a cable-stayed bridge and a drawbridge. Completed in 2000, the unique design by Wilkinson Eyre Architects (with Gifford & Partners engineering) rotates on its longitudinal axis (counterclockwise in this view). The arched upper span tilts downward (about 45 degrees) as the curved pathway tilts up, so that both are high enough above the water to allow boats to pass beneath.
I'd really like to see that in action.
Not as good as in person, but here is - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q54VKT_mZfI - a nice time lapse of the bridge operating.
This is the bridge I get to drive over everyday. My old house had a straight on view of it.
http://tinyurl.com/3f7aej
Nowhere near as big and majestic as some of those pictured in your links, but absolutely unique today and beautiful in its own rugged way is the granite cribwork Bailey Island Bridge in Harpswell, Maine. (And the area inside the cribwork, at low tide, is a marvelous place for marine biology afficianados to collect specimens.) The Wikipedia link includes a picture gallery.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bailey_Island_Bridge
I don't think there is a more beautiful bridge than the Millau Viaduct (7 of 13). The pic they put up doesn't do it justice.
http://img.timeinc.net/time/europe/wonder/images/500_millau.jpg
This one is pretty amazing too:
http://deputy-dog.com/2008/05/05/gephyrophobiacs-look-away-now/
X-Men 3 is the kind of movie that makes Leprechaun 3 look like it broke new ground.