Currently some large valley bridges are under construction on high-speed railway route Erfurt-Leipzig/Halle. These bridges follow a new holistic design philosophy. The superstructure of those integral or semi-integral bridges is rigidly connected to the abutments and the columns. Therefore they are more slender than conventional bridges, and the bridges are very robust and durable because of the omitting of bearings and dilatation joints. The bridge over the Scherkonde valley is taken as an example for explaining the differences between conventional and semi-integral bridges in this paper. This example shows the advantages and the requirements of integral buildings for high-speed railway bridges.