The longest bridges in the world

Bridges are massive structures of concrete and metal that weigh thousands of tons and remain standing even during devastating natural disasters such as earthquakes, floods and hurricanes. Bridges enable people to overcome numerous natural obstacles such as lakes and rivers and are an integral part of modern rail transport.

For all their importance, you are unlikely to often read books or articles praising the greatness of bridges. Let's correct this omission. Here longest bridges in the world, the length of which exceeds even the newest achievement of Russia - the 19-kilometer Crimean Bridge.

10. Bridge over the Hangzhou Bay - 35.6 km

It is a cable-stayed bridge that runs from Jiaxing Urban District to Ningbo City in China's Zhejiang Province. The longest pedestrian bridge in the world, designed in Switzerland and proudly named "European", looks like a baby in comparison with the Chinese bridge. After all, the length of the "European" is only 494 meters.

Due to the many difficulties such a grandiose construction is facing, 600 experts have spent nearly ten years designing the bridge. Offshore construction was one of the main challenges. As a solution, several parts of the bridge were built 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 has been built, called "The Land Between Sea and Sky". This center consists of shops, a parking lot, a restaurant, a hotel and a 145.6-meter observation tower that serves as a tourist attraction. The center is built on an island, which is a platform that rests on stilts so as not to interfere with the sea currents in the bay.

9. Yangcun Bridge - 35.8 km

Built as part of the Beijing-Tianjin rail link, this flyover bridge is used for high-speed trains that travel at 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 (around 2,250 vehicles) pales in comparison to some of the country's newer bridges, the structure 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 a priestess practicing the voodoo cult lived. Legend has it that the priestess placed a curse on the neighborhood, and indeed a hurricane swept three cities on the day of her funeral in 1915. Although the previous Manchek Swamp Bridge collapsed in 1976, the current structure successfully resists any curse and remains indestructible.

7. Bridge-dam over Lake Pontchartrain - 38.4 km

Although the Chinese hold the lead on our list, the American Bridge holds the title for the longest continuous flight over water. This bridge flyover bisects Lake Pontchartrain, 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 required about 60 billion yuan (9.35 billion dollars). The space of Qingdao Bridge is divided into six lanes, and over 5200 supports support a multi-ton structure. 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 highway was completed in 2000, after five long years of work and billions of dollars in funding. The construction used a total of 1,800,000 cubic meters of concrete.

4. Bridge over Wei - 79.7 km

Part of a major railroad that runs between east and west of China. The bridge connects Zhengzhou City in Henan Province and Xian City in Shaanxi Province. It became the first high-speed passenger railway in western China, and was worth 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

It is only a few meters behind the longest overwater bridge in the world. Zhanghua-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 to build large and expensive bridges. However, only China has built three of the world's longest bridges over water. And the longest of them is the viaduct that connects Shanghai to Nanjing. This grandiose structure is marked in the Guinness Book of Records.

The bridge, which opened in 2011, cost, according to various estimates, 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.

The 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 it crosses is Yangcheng Lake in Suzhou. The builders faced a difficult task - to make the bridge universal and as stable as possible. After all, the vast majority of land in the river floodplain consists of soft soils, not hard rocks. Therefore, the designers decided to choose the form of the viaduct - a bridge consisting of numerous small spans, and not several very long ones. In this way, the spans will give the bridge the flexibility it needs to climb, descend, and turn. At the same time, the viaduct remains very strong throughout its length.

However, the title of "the longest suspension bridge in the world" is still the creation of Japanese engineers. The total length of the "Pearl" Bridge (Akashi-Kaikyo) is 39.1 km. The longest suspension bridge in the world stretches across the Akashi Strait and connects the city of Kobe on Honshu Island to Awaji Island. It is not afraid of strong underwater currents, and if necessary, the structure will withstand tremors with a magnitude of 8.5 points.