When people talk about bridges built by women, we often mean something symbolic. A bridge between people or ideas or worlds that do not usually meet.
This time I want to talk about a real one. A literal bridge.
The Sheikh Zayed Bridge in Abu Dhabi was designed by Zaha Hadid and opened in 2010. It carries thousands of people every day between the island and the mainland. Most people using it probably do not think about who designed it. They are just trying to get where they are going.
For a long time Zaha Hadid was known as someone who drew beautiful things that could not be built. Her ideas were described as too ambitious or unrealistic. There was always a sense that she was allowed to imagine but not to execute.
This bridge changed that.
It is not small. It is not decorative. It is major infrastructure. It has to hold weight and heat and traffic and time. It has to work. And it does.
I keep coming back to that idea. That the bridge does not ask to be admired. It does not explain itself. It simply holds.
There is something very familiar in that.
So many women build things that way. Not loudly. Not with a need to be recognised. They make systems that work. They connect pieces that would otherwise not meet. They carry weight that is rarely acknowledged.
The bridge curves like desert dunes. It feels alive without being showy. There is movement in it but also control. It does not fight the environment around it. It responds to it.
That also feels familiar.
What I find most powerful is not that a woman designed a bridge. It is that the bridge became normal. People trust it without thinking. They depend on it without noticing. It is part of daily life.
That is often how real impact looks.
Not a moment. Not a statement. Just something that keeps working long after the conversation has moved on.
When I think about women building bridges, this is what I mean. Not always something visible or celebrated. Sometimes it is something that simply stands there quietly doing its job.
And maybe that is enough.
Women build bridges 