over the Taunus into the plain of the Rhine-Main area. At the Wiesbadener Kreuz the A 3 intersects the 66, which connects the two largest cities of the region, Frankfurt am Main and the provincial capital Wiesbaden. After crossing the Main on the Mainbrücke Raunheim, the A67 branches off from the A 3, forming a route to Stuttgart as well as to Switzerland. Immediately thereafter, the A 3 crosses the grounds of Frankfurt Airport. Two runway bridges connect the northwest runway to the north of the highway. Also, the airport's ICE station is just north of the A 3, which cross pedestrians on a bridge to get from the station to the terminals. Afterwards the A 3 intersects the A 5 at Germany's most used interchange, the Frankfurter Kreuz (Kassel-Basel). The A 3 passes through a largely forested area until Aschaffenburg, passing the city of Frankfurt am Main proper to the south with eight lanes; the Frankfurt-Süd junction, which is located near the Commerzbank-Arena, is the only direct link with Frankfurt. It intersects with A 661 near Offenbach, continuing from this point as six lanes towards Offenbach am Main, Hanau and Seligenstadt, which are also connected with one interchange. As the A 3 enters Bavaria, it intersects with the A 45, crossing the Main on the Mainbrücke Stockstadt and Aschaffenburg and the suburbs Goldbach and Hösbach. There are two overhead noise barriers on this part with a length of 2.2 kilometers altogether. Behind the third Main Crossing on the Main Bridge Bettingen the highway runs rather briefly (approximately six kilometers) through Baden-Württemberg. Shortly before Helmstadt, the highway is again six lanes and bypasses Würzburg to the south, after the triangle Würzburg-West. South of Würzburg the A 3 crosses the Main for the fourth time. The A 3 then intersects the A 7 (Flensburg-Füssen), after which the A 3 switches to four lanes. It then crosses the Main for a fifth time and continues towards Nuremberg. This section leads through the Steigerwald and has a high traffic volume. Passing Höchstadt and Erlangen, Nuremberg is bypassed to the northeast. Outside of Nuremberg, the A 3 intersects with the A 9 (Berlin-Munich) and the A 6 (Saarbrücken-Prague). After Nuremberg, the A 3 passes Neumarkt-Oberpfalz, crosses the Franconian Alps and reaches the Danube valley at Regensburg. Towards Passau, the highway runs parallel to the river past Straubing and Deggendorf (A 92 to Munich), traversing