The European Central Bank wanted to put bridges on their banknotes. The problem was: there
were 12 countries in the Euro, and only seven denominations of notes. They couldn't be neutral
and include a bridge from every country. So their designer, Robert Kalina, came up with
fictional bridges, designed to represent all of Europe. No-one could complain they were
left out, because the bridges didn't exist anywhere. Except...
Welcome to Spijkenisse, near Rotterdam. A few years ago, when this new housing was
being built on this island, a Dutch designer had the idea to build the bridges for real,
and claim them for the Netherlands. So they matched everything: all the architectural
styles, the bright colours that look bizarre in real life -- and the abstract statues that
look fine on paper but very strange when you get close up to them. The higher value the
note, the more modern the bridge: if you ever have a five hundred Euro note, then the bridge
on it will look like this bright purple... thing.
The European Central Bank, thankfully, liked the idea. They gave it a letter of approval,
and the residents seem to be in on it too. It's become a small tourist attraction, and something
to put an otherwise fairly sterile new development on the map. And besides, how often does someone
actually get to build infrastructure as a joke?
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