Old Euripus Bridge

A short pedestrian sliding bridge that retracts under each bank to allow ships to pass through the strait. Watching the bridge slide back into position is itself a small civic event in Chalkis: cars wait, pedestrians cluster at the rails, and a small siren sounds.

The bridge sits at the historical narrowest point of the strait. The bridge railings are the unmatched front-row seat for watching the reversing current beneath you.

The newer Euripus Bridge, a much larger fixed cable-stayed structure a few kilometres south, carries the highway traffic; the old bridge is for foot and local traffic only.

things to do sight bridge
A story
The current sliding bridge dates from 1962 and replaced a 1858 swing bridge, which in turn replaced a series of medieval drawbridges. The 1858 bridge was the first to span the strait at this point continuously — for two thousand years before that, every crossing was a separate movable structure that had to be hauled aside daily to let ships through.