The Erasmus bridge was an essential part of the redesign for the Kop van Zuid according to the main driver behind the redesign: Riek Bakker. She argued that good infrastructure was crucial to find investors for the developments in the South. Construction began in 1986 and was completed in 1996, according to the design by Ben van Berkel. Built from light-blue steel, its one-armed pylon jutted out high into the sky and threw a row of 40 steel cables across the water. Known as the ‘Erasmusbrug’ in Dutch, the bridge has also been lovingly nicknamed The Swan (‘De Zwaan’) by locals due to the distinctive shape of that one, asymmetrical pylon. The bridge was named in 1992 after Desiderius Erasmus, a prominent Christian Renaissance humanist also known as Erasmus of Rotterdam.

Sources
Info, R. (2020, October 19). Erasmusbrug | Rotterdam Info. Rotterdam Info. https://rotterdam.info/locaties/erasmusbrug/

StadsarchiefRotterdam. (n.d.). Erasmusbrug. Stadsarchief Rotterdam. https://stadsarchief.rotterdam.nl/apps/stadsarchief.nl/zoek-en-ontdek/themas/kop-van-zuid/