Great Belt

strait, Denmark

Also known as: Store Bælt, Store Strait

Written and fact-checked by The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Article History

Danish:: Store Bælt

See all related content

Great Belt, strait between the Danish islands of Funen (Fyn) and Langeland (west) and Zealand (Sjælland) and Lolland (east). It is about 40 miles (64 km) long and connects the Baltic Sea with the Kattegat (an arm of the North Sea between Jutland [Denmark] and Sweden).

In the late 1980s construction began on the Great Belt Fixed Link, a bridge and tunnel system connecting Zealand and Funen via the small island of Sprogø. The largest engineering project in Danish history, it consisted of the East Bridge, a suspension bridge connecting Zealand and Sprogø that has one of the longest spans (5,328 feet [1,624 metres]) in the world; the East Tunnel, a 5-mile (8-km) railway tunnel; and the West Bridge, a rail and road bridge (4.1 miles [6.6 km]) linking Sprogø and Funen. The tunnel opened in 1997 and the bridges the following year.

This article was most recently revised and updated by Chelsey Parrott-Sheffer.