How Lagos was made.
A growing map of the things this city was built out of — and the decisions underneath them. Every number here is sourced, and you can check it.
Schematic, not to scale. The amber line is the Third Mainland Bridge; the two short crossings west of it are the Carter and Eko bridges.
The bridge everyone crosses and nobody looks at
Eleven kilometres over a lagoon, fourteen years to build, and eight of them with nothing happening at all.
A country with more cement than it can use
Nigeria makes roughly twice what it consumes and exports the rest. The price went up anyway.
The bridge that has been demolished twice
The crossing is 125 years old. The structure is about 50. The third demolition started in August.
The most Nigerian building in Lagos was drawn in Bulgaria
Built for a festival of Black cultural independence, and modelled on a concert hall on the Black Sea.
Apapa
The port that decided where everything else went.
Eko Atlantic
Land that did not exist, and what it is holding back.
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