Top 10 Longest Bridge in the World for Competitive Exams

Longest Bridge in the World: The Danyang-Kunshan Grand Bridge, which was located in China, is the longest in the world, clocking in at 164.8 km (164,800 m). It is a part of the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway and was built at the cost of around $8.5bn – that’s $51m per mile of bridge.

According to Encyclopedia Britannica, China’s Danyang-Kunshan Grand Bridge, part of the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway, is the longest bridge in the world. The bridge, which was opened in Jun 2011, spans 102.4 miles (nearly 165 km).

Longest Bridge in the World

According to Encyclopedia Britannica, China built the Danyang-Kunshan Grand Bridge in just four years, employing 10,000 workers at the cost of about $8.5 million. It crosses low rice paddies that form part of the Yangtze River (opens in new tab) delta, a few miles from the bridge crossing the Yangcheng Lake in Suzhou. The bridge averages about hundred feet (31 meters) off the ground. 

The Danyang-Kunshan Grand Bridge follows the Yangtze River for most of its length, between five and fifty miles (8 and 80 kilometers) south of it. The section crossing Yangcheng Lake in Suzhou is 5.6 miles (9 kilometers) long and supported by two thousand pillars, Engineering Clicks (opens in new tab) reported.

Top 10 longest bridge in the world

1. The Danyang-Kunshan Grand Bridge, China.
2. Changhua–Kaohsiung Viaduct, Taiwan.
3. Cangde Grand Bridge, China.
4. Tianjin Grand Bridge, China.
5. Weinan Weihe Grand Bridge, China.
6. Bang Na Expressway, Thailand.
7. Beijing Grand Bridge, China.
8. Lake Pontchartrain Causeway, USA.
9. Wuhan Metro Bridge, China.
10. Manchac Swamp Bridge, USA.

Second longest bridge in the world

According to BBC Science Focus, the second longest bridge in the world is the Changhua-Kaohsiung Viaduct in Taiwan. According to Encyclopedia Britannica, this 97.8 miles (157.3 km) bridge was built in 2007 to prevent seismic action during earthquakes.

A viaduct is a long bridge consisting of arches or columns. The bridge is part of the Taiwan High-Speed ​​Rail and spans Juoying and Baguashan in Kaohsiung, Changhua County.

Notable Bridges

The world’s longest road bridge is the thirty-four-mile (55-km) long Bang Na Expressway in Thailand, built in 2000, according to Guinness World Records (opens in a new tab). The road bridge is a six-lane elevated highway that crosses the Bang Pakong River with little water.

After the construction of the massive bridge, Bang Na temporarily became the longest bridge in the world, according to the Transport Research International Documentation (TRID). This TRID database documents the total area of ​​the bridge at 20,400,000 square feet (1,900,000 square meters).

Lake Pontchartrain Causeway is the longest bridge which is in southern Louisiana. According to Encyclopedia Britannica (opens in new tab), the causeway is two parallel bridges, each close to 24 miles (39 km) in length. According to the American Concrete Institute, bridges are supported by 9,500 concrete pilings.

Louisiana’s famous bridge faced a challenge in 2011 when China claimed its Jiazhou Bay Bridge was the longest span over water. Guinness World Records has split the title into two parts, with the 26.4-mile (42.5-km) long Jiaozhou Bay Bridge as the longest bridge over water overall. At the same time, the Pontchartrain is the longest continuous bridge, according to the World Atlas (opens in a new tab). In Jiazhou, land bridges and sea tunnels form parts of the overall structure.