70 foot-high Autobahn bridge in Germany demolished

A 485-metre-long and 70-metre-high old Autobahn bridge was brought down near Wilnsdorf, in the western German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, on Sunday. It is the first time an Autobahn bridge this high has been demolished, according to the government infrastructure operator, Autobahn GmbH. The 55-year-old structure near the Hessian state border collapsed as planned at 1100 local (1000 GMT) with the help of 120 kilogrammes of explosives, which had previously been placed in 1850 boreholes. The bridge’s 16 piers fell to the ground along with the road surface, according to the German news agency, dpa.