Denmark’s disappearing road is really an awesome underwater highway

The bridge, a globally recognized emblem, is actually part rail/road bridge and part corridor that spans the Oresund (or 'The Sound') between Denmark and Sweden. It was finished in 2000, but it has a long and complicated history. It is an emblem of several factors, some of which are diametrically opposed: Nordic cooperation in the economic system and engineering, as well as the resolution of particularly gruesome either real or imagined crimes; freedom of movement, with thousands of travelers traveling both ways on a daily basis; and, more recently, policed boundaries with affiliated identity inspections. Irrespective of one's viewpoint, it is an indisputable connecting point between continental Europe and the rest of the Nordics, as well as a symbol of cross-border relationships.
The bridge's entrance to traffic in 2000 had a significant social and economic effect on both Denmark and Sweden. The ten-minute ride promoted a lot of mobility and the flow of people, goods, and services. The daily commuter population increased from 3,291 in 2000 to 18,000 in 2010. The link has created new opportunities: for example, in 2005, many Danes moved to Sweden to escape Denmark's skyrocketing house prices and commuted to work every day. Due to a labor shortage in Denmark in the mid-2000s, Danish employers began hiring Swedes.

Even the 2008 economic crisis had little effect on the number of commuters. The increased number of refugees in 2015, on the other hand, served as a stark reminder that the Oresund bridge remains a physical border between the two states. With many refugees preferring to apply for asylum in Sweden rather than Denmark, many of the 163,000 applicants heading towards the Oresund bridge passed through Denmark and were initially registered here rather than in Sweden (under the Dublin rules)

The Danish government was outraged when the Danes decided to suspend registration in September 2015, and Swedish police have been checking traveler identification on trains and buses crossing the Sound since December 2015. Due to security concerns, the Danish police implemented border controls once more in late 2019.

свернуть