Viaduct with larger spans, typically lack sufficient horizontal and vertical clearance for large ships. See the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel. The Millau Viaduct is a cable-stayed road-bridge that spans the valley of the river Tarn near Millau in southern France. Designed by the French bridge engineer Michel Virlogeux, in collaboration with architect Norman Robert Foster, it is the tallest vehicular bridge in the world, with one pier's summit at 343 metres (1,125 ft)—slightly taller than the Eiffel Tower and only 38 m (125 ft) shorter than the Empire State Building. It was formally dedicated on 14 December 2004 and opened to traffic
Tarn (river) Tarn (river) The Tarn (, , possibly meaning 'rapid' or 'walled in') is a long river in southern France ("régions" Languedoc-Roussillon and Midi-Pyrénées), right tributary of the Garonne. The Tarn runs in a roughly westerly direction, from its source at an elevation of 1,550 m (5,085 ft) on Mont Lozère in the Cévennes mountains (part of the Massif Central), through the deep gorges and canyons of the Gorges du Tarn (that cuts through the Causse du Larzac), to Moissac in Tarn-et-Garonne, where it joins the Garonne downstream from the centre of town. Its basin covers approximately , and it has