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ROME, Aug. 3-- Italy's new Genoa Saint George Bridge, which replaces the viaduct that collapsed two years ago and killed 43 people, was inaugurated in the northwestern port city of Genoa on Monday. Italian President Sergio Mattarella, and Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, along with other officials attended the ceremony, which was televised live by RAI national public broadcaster. The ceremony began with a performance of the national anthem, followed by a reading out of the names of the 43 victims along with the names of their home towns or countries of provenance, and a minute of silence in their memory. "Today is a day of intense emotion," Italian starchitect and Genoa native Renzo Piano, who designed the bridge for free, said in a speech at the ceremony. Piano, 82, who designed the Center Georges Pompidou in Paris, The Shard in London, and the new Whitney Museum in New York, said:"It is not easy to be the heir of a tragedy, but my great hope for this bridge is that it will be loved." The bridge construction involved the work of 1,189 skilled construction workers and engineers. "To you our city expresses a heartfelt thank you," said Genoa Mayor Marco Bucci. Prime Minister Conte also thanked all the workers who "labored with competence and with passion" on the construction of the bridge. The new bridge consists of a continuous steel deck measuring 1,067 meters made up of 17,400 tons of steel and has 19 steel and concrete spans which are held up by 18 elliptical piers in reinforced concrete. | 
