The Erasmus Bridge is 802 metres of white steel across the Maas, and Rotterdammers call it De Zwaan, the Swan. The nickname has two origins: a swan reportedly flew into its cables shortly after it opened in 1996, and during the first storm, the bridge swayed so alarmingly that locals feared it might take off. Neither happened.

Named after Desiderius Erasmus, the Dutch humanist born in Rotterdam in 1469, it connects the modern city centre to the Kop van Zuid. Its movable bascule section is the largest of its kind in Europe. The Tour de France has started here. The Rotterdam Marathon crosses it. On New Year's Eve, the whole structure lights up.

VoiceMap's self-guided audio tours use the bridge as a pivot point, tracing the city's wartime history from one bank and its postwar reinvention on the other, including Hotel New York, where Dutch emigrants once boarded ships to America.