In 1502 Leonardo da Vinci wanted to build the largest and most beautiful bridge that mankind had ever seen. It was supposed to be built with an arc of 800 feet (240 m) over the Golden Horn, but it never materialized. Leonardo's letter surfaced in 1950 and discussions began in professional circles as to whether such a bridge would work. The Norwegian Leonardo project wanted to prove that Leonardo's design principles would work and built this structure out of laminated wood.