The Messina Bridge Dream (11/4/25)

Ellie Thornton

Hi everyone, welcome back to Milestones Behind the Freight Curtain! I’m Ellie Thornton, and, as always, I’ve got Steve DeNunzio right here. Steve you ready for this? Today’s topic is, honestly, it’s epic—like, literally, people have been dreaming about this for centuries. We’re diving into the Messina Bridge, this wild plan to finally—maybe—link Sicily to mainland Italy. Even the Romans wanted to do it! I love this stuff.

Steve DeNunzio

Yeah, and, honestly, few infrastructure projects are as... what’s the word... mythical? As this one. From Pliny the Elder—okay, I confess, I had to look that name up again—dreaming about laying boats across the Strait, all the way to Charlemagne and a bunch of medieval kings, right? They all looked at Sicily and Calabria and just thought, you know, “We oughta cross that.” But then, between those freaky currents, the width of the strait—it’s, what, at least 3 kilometers at the narrowest?—and, I mean, the seismic drama... it’s not exactly a walk in the park.

Ellie Thornton

Totally Steve! And, I’ve actually been to Sicily—Messina, actually—and I swear, standing there, you just watch the waves basically battling each other. I kept thinking, “How could anyone build anything out there?!” It's so intense, you sort of get that people in ancient times would, like, try crazy things. Didn’t the Romans even think of bridging it with boats or barrels? I mean, barrels, Steve! Talk about creative, if slightly bonkers.

Steve DeNunzio

Yeah, they did. And even later, you had folks like Charlemagne supposedly imagining a network of bridges tying Sicily into the European map. It’s wild—the technology just wasn’t there, but the ambition definitely was. Then you get into the 19th and 20th centuries, and that's when ideas for tunnels and more “modern” bridges kept popping up. But, uh, none of it really stuck. I think there’s something about that strait that just, like, defeats human ego for a couple millennia at a time. Maybe that’s why the modern versions still struggle—I mean, as of now, the project has started and stopped how many times? Five? Six?

Ellie Thornton

At least! There’s a reason the phrase “on-again, off-again” never goes out of style with the Messina. If you look back, besides Romans with their barrels, there were plans for tunnels under the sea, pontoons, floating tubes—just, honestly, ideas that sound more like Bond movie sets than actual construction. But every generation seems to take a stab. And now, you know, we’re actually looking at construction starting yet again. So—third time’s the charm? Or more like, twentieth? I’ve lost count, to be honest.

Steve DeNunzio

I’m right there with you, Ellie. You look at the evolution here—it’s less about technical details in the early days and more about this persistent, centuries-old hope to connect a key part of southern Italy. It’s, uh, almost poetic. But then, of course, the reality of physics—and politics—keeps crashing the party.

Ellie Thornton

So, Steve, let’s talk about what’s actually on the table now. This latest plan is pretty massive, isn't it? The bridge would stretch a little over 3.6 kilometers—makes it the longest suspension bridge in the world if, you know, nobody else beats them to it before 2032. And it’s not just for cars—six traffic lanes, plus two railway lines! When you look at renderings, it’s... kind of mind-blowing.

Steve DeNunzio

Yeah, it’s huge. Just for context, the main suspended span would be about three thousand three hundred meters. That’s more than a kilometer longer than the Çanakkale Bridge in Turkey, which is the current record-holder for suspension spans. So, uh, this is a leap ahead. And those pylons? 399 meters tall. That’s taller than almost every building in Italy—that’s... well, let’s just say you can’t miss them.

Ellie Thornton

And it’s not just the size! The bridge is supposed to handle, what, over six thousand cars an hour? Or was it six thousand a day? No, I’m pretty sure it’s per hour. And something like 200 trains? I mean, I love the ferry, but that’s a time jump—people could cross the strait in ten minutes instead of, like, an hour and a half. That sort of changes, um, everything for locals and goods moving across.

Steve DeNunzio

Think about the wind and seismic challenges, too. The region is one of the most earthquake-prone in Europe. The 1908 Messina earthquake—yeah, the one that basically leveled Messina and Reggio Calabria—killed, I think, over 100,000 people. So, whatever tech they use, it’s gotta be able to stand up to some real stress tests. You look at how bridges in Japan or even back in California, like the Golden Gate, account for earthquakes and for high winds. Aerodynamic stability is absolutely critical. I might be wrong, but I think the current Messina design borrows some of those fighter jet-inspired wind profiles, kind of like the deck design for Çanakkale, to let gusts pass through instead of hitting one solid slab.

Ellie Thornton

Oh, yeah—the way they want to basically make the deck slice through the wind. And with the seismic stuff? I heard, well, read, that they’re planning for the bridge to survive not just an average quake, but something stronger than what took out Messina back in 1908. That's proper future-proofing—assuming it works, touch wood. But, honestly, just getting the materials, building those pylons, anchoring them in such unstable ground—all of that just makes my head spin.

Steve DeNunzio

You know Ellie, it’s a perfect case study in what we talked about in our ports episode, where safety, resilience, risk—all this stuff is so tightly interconnected. Messina is like a test for the whole industry: How do you innovate while, uh, not tempting fate?

Ellie Thornton

And how do you convince people that it’s actually possible? I don’t know about you, Steve, but I get the sense some folks still think it’s a bit of a “pipe dream”—even when the blueprints exist and the trucks are probably lining up to start pouring concrete as we speak.

Steve DeNunzio

Convincing people—that’s where the story gets messy. Italian politics and the Messina Bridge? That’s drama with a capital “D.” The plan’s been scrapped, what, under every government since the ’60s? I always mix this up—Prodi nixed it, then Berlusconi brought it back around, then it died with Monti for budget reasons. Renzi talked about it, then Conte... and now with Meloni, they’re moving dirt again, supposedly for real this time.

Ellie Thornton

And, of course, every time it’s revived, old concerns come roaring back—earthquakes, but also, uh, the mafia. I mean, the Calabrian ‘Ndrangheta and Sicilian mafia have a long history of getting very cozy with infrastructure projects in the region. Wasn’t there like, a mayor involved in a corruption scandal just over ferry ops? So, you’ve got organized crime risks layered on top of seismic and engineering risks. It’s, kind of, hard to blame the skeptics.

Steve DeNunzio

Exactly. And don’t forget, there’s also environmental groups raising alarms—migratory birds, for one. The strait is a major flyway. Greenpeace, Fridays for Future, all those groups are weighing in, worried the project’s more, I dunno, harmful than helpful. And in 2025, protests in Messina got pretty heated—thousands showed up, there were banners, even threats to occupy construction sites. The No Bridge Movement, Extinction Rebellion—these folks aren’t quiet, let’s put it that way.

Ellie Thornton

You also have the EU and NATO sort of wading in because, well, the project’s so big they’re arguing about whether it could actually count towards Italy’s NATO spending. Which is, I mean, that sounds a bit creative, right? But it turned into this argument about, “Is this a critical security corridor? Or just an excuse to move budget lines around?” Even the US weighed in—said, you know, maybe that’s not quite what NATO had in mind with military spending goals!

Steve DeNunzio

And if all that wasn’t enough, there’s the contractors themselves—Webuild, COWI, global engineering titans, plus local firms, all trying to keep the project both on time and—maybe even harder—squeaky clean. And that never-ending tension with local opposition. I keep coming back to stories from the States, too. Whether it’s a port, a highway, or some railway, these projects so often become, like, national obsessions. The Messina Bridge is no different—it pulls in history, politics, pride, even football rivalries. At this point, it’s less a bridge and more a symbol, right?

Ellie Thornton

Absolutely. And it’s kind of fascinating and a bit maddening to see how the logistics, the politics, and the local culture all sort of collide here. We saw this with the Suez Canal in our last episode, yeah? Infrastructure isn’t ever just about concrete or cables—it’s about, you know, what a society wants to stand for. Whether the Messina Bridge ever gets finished—or finished this time—I think it’s clear it’ll be one for the history books.

Steve DeNunzio

Couldn’t have said it better myself Ellie. And as always, there’ll be plenty more drama to cover—especially with the first stages of construction slated for this year. So, let’s leave it there for now. Thanks for listening, everyone. Ellie—it’s always a pleasure, even on the big, thorny topics.

Ellie Thornton

Right back at you Steve! Thanks everyone for joining us—come back next time, because you know there’s always another milestone. See ya!