lpetrich
Contributor
The bridge is the 
Pelješac Bridge and it is being built for a very curious reason.
Croatia is a former Yugoslav country, and it surrounds Bosnia and Herzegovina to the north, west, and east, giving that nation a U shape with the bottom of the U pointing westward, the arms of the U pointing eastward, the northern arm fat and the southern arm long.
The southern arm follows the Adriatic coast, but it is interrupted by a small strip of land that belongs to B-H, the Neum Corridor, with the tiny town of Neum on the coast in it. It is very short, about 8 kilometers (5 miles long), much shorter than Croatia's Adriatic coastline (over 500 km / 300 mi straightened out).
How that came about is an interesting story. In the early 18th cy., the Republic of Ragusa ceded two bits of land to the Ottoman Empire to make buffer zones against Venice, which at the time controlled the coast north and south of it. The bits became part of Bosnia-Herzegovina. The southern one, Sutorina, was eventually acquired by Montenegro, but the northern one, the Neum Corridor, is still part of B-H.
The Republic of Ragusa eventually became a part of Croatia, and Ragusa itself became Dubrovnik. The Neum Corridor thus separates Dubrovnik and nearby territory from the rest of Croatia.
This was not much of a problem when Croatia and B-H were in Yugoslavia, but as Yugoslavia broke up, Croatia and Slovenia were the first of its component republics to become independent, in 1991. That caused a problem, because Croatia and B-H were now different nations, and the Neum Corridor split Croatia in two. In 1998, Croatia and B-H agreed to the Neum Agreement allowing free passage, but it was not properly ratified.
There is a further problem. Croatia is to eventually join the Schengen Area an area in the European Union without border checks between members. However, B-H will be outside the EU, and that will mean border checks twice, once to enter it and once to exit it.
How to get around that conundrum?
Pelješac Bridge and it is being built for a very curious reason.Croatia is a former Yugoslav country, and it surrounds Bosnia and Herzegovina to the north, west, and east, giving that nation a U shape with the bottom of the U pointing westward, the arms of the U pointing eastward, the northern arm fat and the southern arm long.
The southern arm follows the Adriatic coast, but it is interrupted by a small strip of land that belongs to B-H, the Neum Corridor, with the tiny town of
Neum on the coast in it. It is very short, about 8 kilometers (5 miles long), much shorter than Croatia's Adriatic coastline (over 500 km / 300 mi straightened out).How that came about is an interesting story. In the early 18th cy., the
Republic of Ragusa ceded two bits of land to the Ottoman Empire to make buffer zones against Venice, which at the time controlled the coast north and south of it. The bits became part of Bosnia-Herzegovina. The southern one, Sutorina, was eventually acquired by Montenegro, but the northern one, the Neum Corridor, is still part of B-H.The Republic of Ragusa eventually became a part of Croatia, and Ragusa itself became Dubrovnik. The Neum Corridor thus separates Dubrovnik and nearby territory from the rest of Croatia.
This was not much of a problem when Croatia and B-H were in Yugoslavia, but as Yugoslavia broke up, Croatia and Slovenia were the first of its component republics to become independent, in 1991. That caused a problem, because Croatia and B-H were now different nations, and the Neum Corridor split Croatia in two. In 1998, Croatia and B-H agreed to the
Neum Agreement allowing free passage, but it was not properly ratified.There is a further problem. Croatia is to eventually join the
Schengen Area an area in the European Union without border checks between members. However, B-H will be outside the EU, and that will mean border checks twice, once to enter it and once to exit it.How to get around that conundrum?