Editorial: The Ring Road, Forging A Nation

July 14, 1974 saw the opening of the then-biggest and most expensive man-made structure in the history of Iceland until that time: a 904-metre-long bridge across Skeiðará, a glacial river just east of Skaftafell in southeast Iceland. A river that had, for centuries, made the area east of it one of the most isolated places in Iceland. This bridge, since defunct, also closed the circle that is the Ring Road around Iceland, currently running at 1,321 kilometres.

The timing of the opening was not a coincidence. In 1974, Iceland celebrated 1,100 years of settlement and 30 years of independence. Until the mid-20th century the main mode of travel in Iceland was either the horse, or one’s own two feet. Roads hardly existed.

So building roads became an integral part of building a nation. Completing a road circling the island in 1974 was seen as a project of national importance and pride. Or as one MP put it: “The Ring Road should help strengthen economic activity in many places and equalise conditions for settlement throughout the country.”

The project, an expensive affair for a nation of just over 200,000, was financed by a bond run, in which a majority of the population took part. In a speech delivered by MP Eysteinn Jónsson at the opening of the bridge he quoted “a little girl” who had told him “My piggy bank is completely empty. You see, there are people building a bridge, and the bridge is so terribly long, and then they need money so they can build the bridge. And so my dad emptied my piggy bank so they could have my money and keep building the big bridge.”

So the bridge across was not only a bridge, it was a symbol of a newly free nation trying to forge itself, or as Eysteinn put it: “We […] place emphasis on remembering that a small nation cannot carry out great works unless it is free.“

So while the Ring Road by now is just a road that eventually takes you back to where you started we should remember that building it was, for Icelanders, a metaphor for paving the way for freedom, independence and progress.

This issue — cover and all — is dedicated to the Ring Road. Enjoy.

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