the four-lane Waldschlösschen Bridge across the valley proved controversial. In 2006, the UNESCO World Heritage Committee placed the Dresden Elbe Valley on its List of World Heritage in Danger and threatened to remove it from the World Heritage Site list. According to the committee's official website, the committee determined that "plans to build a bridge across the Elbe would have such a serious impact on the integrity of property's landscape that it may no longer deserve to be on the World Heritage List," and therefore decided to place the Dresden Elbe Valley on the List of World Heritage Sites in Danger "with a view to also consider, in a prudent manner, delisting the site from the World Heritage List in 2007 if the plans were carried through." Though the bridge was approved in a referendum in 2005, the city council decided on 20 July 2006 to stop the invitation to bid on contracts to build the bridge. However, after several court decisions, the city was forced to begin building the bridge at the end of 2007 until further court hearings could be held in 2008. In July 2008, the UNESCO World Heritage Committee decided to keep the Dresden Elbe Valley on the World Heritage List in the hope that the construction would be stopped and the integrity of the landscape restored. If not, the property would be deleted from the World Heritage List in 2009. In June 2009 at a UNESCO meeting in Seville, the World Heritage Committee decided in a 14 to 5 vote with 2 abstentions to revoke the Dresden Elbe Valley's status as a World Heritage Site. See also Former UNESCO World Heritage Sites List of regions of Saxony References External links Dresden Elbe Valley / Official UNESCO Website Former World Heritage Sites Geography of Dresden Landmarks in Germany World Heritage Sites in Germany Valleys of Saxony World Heritage Sites in Danger Cultural landscapes of Germany