Øresund Bridge Öresund Bridge History The construction of the Øresund Bridge began in 1995, and was finished 14 August 1999. Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark and Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden met midway across the bridge-tunnel to celebrate its completion on August 14 1999. Its official dedication took place on July 1 2000, with Queen Margrethe II, and King Carl XVI Gustaf as the host and hostess of the ceremony. The bridge-tunnel was opened for public traffic later that day. On June 12. 2000, two weeks before the dedication, 79,871 runners competed in a half marathon (Swedish: Broloppet, Danish: Broløbet; the Bridge Run) from Amager, Denmark, to Skåne, Sweden. In spite of two schedule setbacks – the discovery of 16 unexploded World War II bombs lying on the seafloor and an inadvertently skewed tunnel segment – the bridge-tunnel was finished three months ahead of schedule. Initially, the crossing was not used as much as expected, probably because of the high tolls. Since 2005, there has been a rapid increase in traffic. This may have been caused by Danes buying homes in Sweden – to take advantage of lower housing prices in Malmö – and commuting to work in Denmark.
Thomas and William