The Lysaker Bridge ( no, Lysakerbrua or ) is a road bridge between Sollerud in

Oslo Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of ...

and Lysaker in

Bærum Bærum () is a municipality in the Greater Oslo Region in Norway that forms an affluent suburb of Oslo on the west coast of the city. Bærum is Norway's fifth largest municipality with a population of 128,760 (2021). It is part of the electoral ...

. A road bridge has existed on the same location, at the outflux of the river

Lysakerelva Lysakerelven (also known as Lysakerelva, en, Lysaker River) is a river in Norway that forms the boundary between the municipalities of the capital city of Oslo and Bærum. The river by this name has its source in Bogstadvannet, though the source ...

into

Lysakerfjorden Lysakerfjorden ( en, Lysaker FjordRacing Yachtsman / Milestones in Norway. 1983. ''Yachting'' (December): 34–38, p. 38.) is an arm of the Oslofjord in Norway. It starts at the mouth of the Lysaker River, and is bordered by the peninsulas Snarøya ...

, for several hundred years. Lysaker became a traffic hub between the capital Oslo and its western surroundings after the

Kongsberg Silver Mines Kongsberg Silver works () was a mining operation at Kongsberg in Viken county in Norway. The town of Kongsberg is the site of the Norwegian Mining Museum (). History Operating from over 80 different sites, Kongsberg silver mines constituted th ...

were opened in 1624. In 1716, during the

Great Northern War The Great Northern War (1700–1721) was a conflict in which a coalition led by the Tsardom of Russia successfully contested the supremacy of the Swedish Empire in Northern, Central and Eastern Europe. The initial leaders of the anti-Swedi ...

, it was the site of a Dano-Norwegian bombardment of Swedish troops who tried to cross the bridge. A modern road (''Drammensveien'') was finished in 1859. In 1872 the Drammen Line railroad was constructed, creating its own bridge at the same location. On the night between 13 and 14 April 1940 the bridge was the site of the Lysaker Bridge sabotage, arguably the first act of sabotage in

Norway during World War II The occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany during the Second World War began on 9 April 1940 after Operation Weserübung. Conventional armed resistance to the German invasion ended on 10 June 1940, and Nazi Germany controlled Norway until the ...

. In August 1920 a traffic count put the number of private cars at 950. There were also 207 trucks, 227 motorbikes, 728 bikes, 365 caravans, 22 horse riders and 2,958 pedestrians. Today, only motorized vehicles are allowed as the bridge has become a part of

European route E18 European route E18 runs from Craigavon in Northern Ireland to Saint Petersburg in Russia, passing through Scotland, England, Norway, Sweden and Finland. It is about in length. Although the designation implies the possibility of a through jour ...

. Located on the border between the capital Oslo and the largest commuter district Bærum, the Lysaker Bridge has been vital to the rapidly expanding post-WWII car commuting in

Greater Oslo Greater Oslo Region ("Stor-Oslo-regionen" in Norwegian language, Norwegian) is a statistical metropolitan region surrounding the Norway, Norwegian capital of Oslo. The region includes the city of Oslo (population: 658,390), the entire county of Ake ...

. In 1990 it had an annual average daily traffic of about 100,000 cars, and was as such Norway's most trafficked bridge. This number had been about 10,000 in the late 1940s and 67,000 in 1970. In the 2000s the car count had risen to 170,000. In 1961 the road was expanded to four lanes, two in each direction. Another major expansion followed in 1980. From March to June 1990 the bridge underwent another expansion from six to seven lanes, to the cost of .

References

Road bridges in Norway Transport in Bærum {{coord, 59.9133, 10.6408, type:landmark_region:NO, display=title