Bridges are massive structures made of concrete and metal that weigh thousands of tons and remain standing even during devastating natural disasters such as earthquakes, floods and hurricanes. Bridges allow people to overcome numerous natural obstacles, such as lakes and rivers, and are an integral part of modern rail transport.
Despite all their importance, you are unlikely to often read books or articles praising the greatness of bridges. Let's fix this omission. Here the longest bridges in the worldwhose length exceeds even the latest achievement of Russia - the 19-kilometer Crimean bridge.
10. Bridge over the Hangzhou Bay - 35.6 km
This is a cable-stayed bridge extending from Jiaxing City District to Ningbo City in Zhejiang Province of China. The longest pedestrian bridge in the world, designed in Switzerland and proudly named "European", looks like a real baby in comparison with the Chinese bridge. After all, the length of the "European" is only 494 meters.
Due to the many difficulties faced by such a grandiose construction, 600 experts spent almost ten years designing the bridge. One of the main problems was offshore construction. As a solution, several parts of the bridge were created on land and then transported to the area for which they were built.
In the center of the bridge, a 10,000-square-meter service center was built under the name “Land Between the Sea and Sky”. This center consists of shops, parking, a restaurant, a hotel and a 145.6-meter observation tower, which serves as a tourist attraction. The center is built on an island, which is a platform resting on stilts so as not to interfere with sea currents in the bay.
9. Yangcun Bridge - 35.8 km
Built as part of the Beijing-Tianjin railway link, this overpass bridge is used for high-speed trains that travel at a speed of 350 kilometers per hour.
8. Manchek Swamp Bridge - 36.7 km
The first, but not the last bridge built in the USA on our list. Although its daily traffic (about 2,250 cars) pales in comparison with some of the country's newer bridges, this construction remains an engineering feat. After all, Manchek Swamp was built in 1979.
The bridge passes over the swamps in which, according to legend, the werewolf Lugaru lived and lived a priestess practicing the voodoo cult. Legend has it that the priestess cursed the neighborhood, and indeed a hurricane swept three cities on the day of her burial in 1915. Although the previous Manchek Swamp bridge collapsed in 1976, the current structure successfully resists any curse and remains unbreakable.
7. Dam Bridge over Lake Ponchartrain - 38.4 km
Although the Chinese keep the lead on our list, the American bridge holds the title of the longest continuous flight over water. This bridge overpass bisects Lake Ponchartrain in Louisiana and is supported by nine thousand concrete piles.
6. Qingdao Bridge - 42.5 km
The construction of the road connecting the Chinese port city of Qingdao with the suburb of Huangdao was carried out from 2007 to 2011. and it required about 60 billion yuan (9.35 billion dollars). The space of Qingdao Bridge is divided into six lanes, and supports a multi-ton structure of over 5200 supports. Every day, 300 thousand cars pass through the bridge.
5. Bang Na Highway - 54 km
The six-lane bridge is located in Bangkok, the capital of Thailand. The construction of the highway was completed in 2000, after five long years of work and financing in the amount of a billion dollars. The construction took a total of 1,800,000 cubic meters of concrete.
4. Bridge over Wei - 79.7 km
Part of a major railway line between east and west of China. The bridge connects the city of Zhengzhou in Henan and the city of Xi'an in Shaanxi. It became the first high-speed passenger rail in western China, and cost about 35.3 billion yuan ($ 5.4 billion).
3. Tianjin Great Bridge - 113.7 km
The third longest viaduct bridge is part of the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed rail link. It runs between Langfang County and Qingxian County.
2. Zhanghua-Kaohsiung Viaduct, 157.3 km
Only a few meters away, this bridge is inferior to the longest bridge in the world above water. Zhangghua-Kaohsiung is part of Taiwan's high-speed rail network and carries over 200 million passengers every month.
1. The longest bridge in the world: Danyang-Kunshan Viaduct - 164.8 km
China is not the only country that builds large and expensive bridges. However, only in the PRC built the three longest bridges in the world over water. And the longest of them is the viaduct connecting Shanghai with Nanjing. This grandiose building is noted in the Guinness Book of Records.
The bridge, which opened in 2011, according to various sources, cost from 8.5 to 10 billion dollars. 10,000 people were involved in its construction. In total, the bridge is supported by 9,500 concrete piles.
Danyang-Kunshan Bridge is unique in that it crosses many different places. It covers rivers, canals, chasms, streams, plains, hills, lakes and rice fields. The largest body of water that he crosses is Yangcheng Lake in Suzhou. The builders had a difficult task - to make the bridge universal and as stable as possible. Indeed, the vast majority of land in the floodplain of the river consists of soft soils, not hard rocks. Therefore, the designers decided to choose the shape of the viaduct - a bridge consisting of numerous small spans, and not several very long ones. In this case, the spans will give the bridge the flexibility necessary for ascents, descents and turns. At the same time, the viaduct remains very strong throughout its length.
However, the title of "longest suspension bridge in the world" has so far been the creation of Japanese engineers. The total length of the Pearl Bridge (Akashi-Kaykyo) is 39.1 km. The longest suspension bridge in the world extends across the Akashi Strait and connects the city of Kobe on Honshu Island with the island of Awaji. Strong undercurrents are not afraid of him, and if necessary, the structure will withstand tremors of magnitude 8.5 points.
