Erasmus Bridge

On Sunday evening a number of buildings in various Dutch cities were colored orange to draw attention to violence against women and girls. The United Nations proclaimed November 25th as the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. Over the next 16 days, this campaign will get attention worldwide, NU.nl reports.

In the Netherlands, at least 32 buildings in 22 different places were illuminated in orange on Sunday. These included the Grote Kerk in Breda, The EYE film museum in Amsterdam, and the Erasmus bridge and Euromast in Rotterdam. 

At midnight the Netherlands welcomed 2018. Thousands of people attended firework shows in Rotterdam, Amsterdam and The Hague, despite the rainy and windy weather. A few fireworks shows had to be canceled due to the weather conditions, NU.nl reports.

The National Fireworks show on and around the Erasmus Bridge in Rotterdam continued without too many adjustments, according to the newspaper. An estimated 60 thousand people came to watch the fireworks.

The Erasmus Bridge in Rotterdam opened in time for Friday morning rush hour after being closed for hours. On Thursday evening the boom gates broke and could not open, AD reports.

The closure of the bridge caused many traffic problems in Rotterdam on Thursday. Cars and trams were stuck at the bridge for a long time. Pedestrians and cyclists eventually decided to pass under the bridge, as going over it was impossible. 

Over 40,000 people packed into an area around Rotterdam’s Erasmus Bridge to watch some 4,000 kilograms of fireworks explode in the sky during one of the most elaborate New Year’s Eve countdowns in the Netherlands. The eight-minute long display was the centerpiece of commercial network RTL 4’s countdown to 2016.