Bridge between Continents: Mind the Gap (Iceland)

Driving Iceland’s coastal Route 44 on the Reykjanes Peninsula, you suddenly come across a bridge in the middle of nowhere. While the bridge itself is nothing special (my personal opinion is that it is a bit of a metal monstrosity and the reason why there are no photos of the bridge itself), what it represents is something much more interesting. This bridge, the Bridge between Continents, spans the gap between the North American and Eurasian Tectonic Plates.

Walk up to the bridge Bridge between Continents

Geology

Every year the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates move away from each other at a rate of about 2.5 cm / 1 inch per year. Iceland sits on the rift between the two; in fact the movement of the plates and its location means that Iceland is the start of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge – a series of mountains that seperate the North American, Eurasian and African plates.

View towards the coast from the Bridge between Continents

This movement is also the reason that Iceland has a high amount of volcanic activity, since it sits in a place where the tectonic plate movement causes a lot of friction close to the surface of the crust.

View from under the Bridge between Continents – standing in the gap!

Hiking

There are several hiking possibilities from the Bridge between Continents. Firstly you could hike towards the shoreline, which is less than 1 km/1 mile from the bridge, and hike along the flat coast either north towards Keflavik or south towards Grindavik. Another option is to hike east towards the Sandfellshæð Viewpoint and beyond. If you hike this way, you will eventually reach the area of the Blue Lagoon and Route 43, which is the next road running north-south on the peninsula.

Please remember that this is a volcanically active area and precautions should be taken. Make sure that there are no special warnings, stay a respectful distance from any steam rising from the ground, and leave areas that are hotter than others. Make sure you also have plenty of food and water in case you become stranded.