(19 Aug 2006) SHOTLIST
1. Zoom out of bridge
2. Side view of bridge over valley
3. Pan of bridge
4. Close up railing of wooden bridge
5. Medium shot bridge
6. Medium shot railing and pylons
7. Set up shot - Udo Neumeyer and Michael Langenstein walking on bridge
8. SOUNDBITE : (German) Udo Neumeyer, artistic director of German Federal Garden show (BUGA)
" The bridge is a wooden bridge first of all. The body of the bridge is made of wood, but the pylons are made of steel. The pylons have are very fine because they should not block the valley. The pylons resemble trees and fit therefore perfectly in the countryside."
9. Wide shot bridge
10. Wide shot bridge
11. Pan pylons
12. Pan pylons
13. SOUNDBITE: (German) Udo Neumeyer, artistic director of German Federal Garden show (BUGA)
" As I said the bridge is made of wood but at the same time the bridge is because of its construction permanent protected. The bridge has a lasting like a bridge made of steel because all wooden elements are protected to resist bad weather."
14. Close up side view of railing
15. Wide shot bridge
16.SOUNDBITE : (German) Michael Langenstein, German Federal Garden show (BUGA) spokesman
"We find here a totally new created landscape. It is now like is was fifty years ago before strip mining started. Therefore the bridge connects the past with the future."
17. Pan landscape to bridge
19. Medium shot bridge in front of town of Ronneburg
LEAD IN:
The longest wooden bridge in Europe - called "The Dragon's Tail" - has been built in the Thuringia region of eastern Germany.
The pedestrian bridge spans 240 metres (787feet) long, across a valley that is 25 metres (82 feet) deep.
STORYLINE:
Europe's longest wooden pedestrian bridge is made of larch and spruce, and is supported by two pylons made of steel.
At the beginning the architect wanted to make the bridge of carbon.
But because there was little information about the use of carbon for bridges, he decided against it.
The next idea was to make the bridge of steel. But by this time steel prices around the world had increased so much that the cost of building the bridge was prohibitive.
The third and final solution was to make the bridge of wood.
Because the valley is often hit by heavy winds, the architect tested a model of the bridge in a wind tunnel to make sure that the structure would be able to resist the elements.
But the wind wasn't the only problem.
Some 3600 people can cross the bridge at the same time.
That meant testing the structure to see if it could with stand that amount of movement.
The girder is a wooden band which is glued to the bridge like a rope.
The upper pylons are designed to resembled trees so they blend in with the landscape.
The architect is hoping that wood will not only prove to be a light material but also an ecological solution, as wood is a renewable source.
After World War II the area around the town of Ronneburg became a centre of strip mining - a process that uses machines to scrape soil or rock away from mineral deposits just under Earth's surface.
A company called "Wismut" mined uranium and exported it to Russia, where it was used to fuel their SS 20 rockets.
When the strip mining came to an end, reconstruction of the area began.
The reconstruction project is expected to be completed in 2010.
Ronneburg will host the German Federal Garden Show from April to October 2007 and the bridge will be a central feature.
Afterwards, the bridge will form part of the long-distance cycling route through the region.
Keyword-world records
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