The first underground railway was opened in London in 1863 and was followed by many others throughout the world. In Copenhagen, plans existed as early as 1902 to construct an electrically driven ring route, but the project was repeatedly shelved, and in 1967, the idea was dismissed as economically unviable. On 19 October 2002, however, a whole century after the initial plans had been drawn up and after a six-year construction period, the first section of an underground rail network was taken into service. Today, greater Copenhagen is one of the fastest growing regions in Europe. To a large extent, this is attributable to the bridge constructed over The Sound (Øresund). The bridge was opened on 1 July 2000 and links Zealand in Denmark with Skåne in Sweden. It has lent new impetus to the region, which has a population of 3.5 million and includes the cities of Copenhagen and Malmö. The Danish capital has responded to these signals by developing the district of Ørestad, for example, a new centre on the Amager peninsula south of the city.