List of Longest Bridges in the World

Bridge is a structure which helps people, vehicles to cross an obstacle such as water, railways, town below, valley, hills and other scenarios. Basically it connects two points and decreases or shortens the distance between them.

Howrah Bridge in Kolkata, is a well-known bridge across the Hooghly river in West Bengal. The Mumbai Sea-Link is also a very famous bridge in Maharashtra. The types of bridges are – arch bridge, beam bridge, truss bridge, cantilever bridge, tied arch bridge, suspension bridge and cable-stayed bridge.

Longest Bridges in the World

The longest bridges in the world are –

Danyang-Kunshan Grand Bridge is the longest bridge in the world. It is situated in China. It runs for a distance of 164.8 kilometers. This bridge runs across 5 states in China. The five cities are – Danyang, Changzhou, Wuxi, Sunzou and Kunshan. It is made to be a part of 1302 km long Beijing-Shanghai Railway High Speed.

Tianjin Grand Bridge is located in China. It is the second largest bridge in the world. This viaduct bridge runs for a distance of 113.7km. This bridge is also a part of Beijing-Shanghai High-Speed Railway.

Jiaozhou Bay Bridge is one of the largest bridges in the world; it is also located in China. It runs a distance of about 26.7 km and is located in the eastern China’s Shandong province. This is a long roadway bridge passing over the Jiaozhou Bay. It is a part of the 41.58 km Jiaozhou Bay Connection Project; it is said to be the “longest bridge over water.”

Lake Pontchartrain Causeway is the largest bridge over water in the world in the continent of North America. Lake Pontchartrain in southern Louisiana in the United States of America has this bridge running over it.

The total length of the bridge is 38.442 km. It is held over water with 9500 concrete pillars. It is built with two parallel bridges with 4 lanes in total.

Manchac Swamp is also situated in the state of Louisiana. It is situated in the country of the United States of America in North America. It has a total length of 36.7km. This bridge represents one third of the total highway of the state of Louisiana. It had been created as a twin concrete trestle bridge.

Hangzhou Bay Bridge connects Chinese municipalities – Jiaxing and Ningbo in Zhejiang province. The total length of the bridge is 35.6 km. There are six lanes in the bridge. It is known to have the longest span between ground to support 448 m (cable stayed).

Runyang Bridge is one of the longest suspension bridges in the world. It is located in China. It crosses the river Yangtze in Jiangsu Province. The length of its main span is over 1.4km. It is 22.1 miles long. The bridge is a part of the Yangzhou-Liyang Expressway.

Donghai Bridge has a total length of 32.5 km. This is one of the largest cross sea bridges in the world. It is situated in China. It connects mainland China with an offshore island Yangshan which hosts large deep-water ports.

Majority of the bridge structures are low level viaducts, with several high cable stayed sections that allow passage of ships underneath it.

Atchafalaya Swamp Expressway has a feature of 19 kilometers of trestle bridge. This has 1.6 km of tunnels and two high clearance bridges. It crosses 4 artificial islands and has 3.5 km of causeway and 8.9 km of access roads. It has 4 lanes. The total length is 28.3 km.

Vasco Da Gama Bridge is situated in the capital of Portugal – Lisbon. It is made from a combination of viaducts, rangviews and cable stayed bridge. It runs over the Tagus River near Lisbon, the capital city. The total length of the bridge is 17.2 km and the large span is 420 m.

Rio-Niteroi Bridge is a box-girder bridge which is located at Guanabara Bay, in the state of Rio de Janeiro in the country of Brazil in the South American sub-continent. It has 8 traffic lanes and the total length of the bridge is 13.2 km. It also holds the record of the longest prestressed concrete bridge in the Southern Hemisphere till date.

Longest Bridges in India

The longest bridges in India are:

Conclusion

Billions of dollars are spent on developing bridges and structures. China loans money to different countries to develop bridges. The bridges serve a very simplified solution to traffic, and obstacles which come on the path.

An interesting fact is that the Golden Bridge in San Francisco even at over 4,000 ft does not qualify in the longest bridges in the world.