A new bridge that locals wanted but failed to have named after US action movie hero Chuck Norris opened on Saturday linking Austria and Slovakia for cyclists and pedestrians.
The name of the famous martial artist and actor came a clear first in a survey of Slovakians organised on social networking website Facebook by Bratislava regional assembly in February as it looked around for a suitable name.
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Star power: People chose Chuck Norris to name the bridge after. Pic/AFP
But Slovakian authorities, amid Austrian disapproval, decided this was too flippant, opting instead for ‘Freedom Cycling Bridge’ in remembrance of the dark days of the Cold War when the two peoples were divided by the Iron Curtain.
The 550-metre construction linking Schlosshof in eastern Austria and Devinska Nova Ves is a “European signal here at the junction between old and new Europe,” said Erwin Proell, premier of the state of Lower Austria.
The 4.6-million-euro (Rs 31.8 crore) project, 80-percent financed by the European Union, “shows that we live in a time in which we build bridges, not tear them down,” Proell said at a ceremony also attended by Slovakian Foreign Minister Miroslav Lajcak.
550 mu00a0The length of the Freedom Cycling Bridge
Rs 31.8 cru00a0The cost of the Freedom Cycling Bridge
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