Bridges are buildings designed by man, since ancient times, to overcome natural or artificial obstacles placed before a path. These connecting works are typical of civil engineering as well as among the most fascinating works ever created because they can have unimaginable lengths, they can stand for hundreds of meters from the ground on which they rest and can have shapes that recall the landscape requiring even more difficult projects.
Those that we will see in this article are the five suspension bridges, those that, to be clear, have the crossing axis suspended by cables, called stralli, the longest in the world.
To draw up the ranking, it should be noted that the total length of the bridge is not considered, but rather the length of the central span suspended between the main piers. Starting from the fifth position we have …
5. Humber Bridge – England
With a central span of 1410 m it was the longest suspension bridge in the world since the year of completion in 1981 until 1998 when the Akashi Kaikyō Bridge was completed.
4. Runyang Bridge – China
The Runyang Bridge is a complex of two bridges, one to the north and one to the south, which cross the Yangtse River in the Jiangsu Province.
The suspension bridge in the fourth position is that located to the south; this has a central span of 1490 m and has towers that exceed abundantly 200 m in height. Its construction began in October 2000 and was opened to traffic on 30 April 2005.
3. Storebæltsbroen Bridge – Denmark
The Storebæltsbroen Bridge connects two Danish islands: Selandia with Fionia. Actually, the name refers to the East part of the bridge, that is the suspended part, but it is commonly used to refer to the complex of bridges in its entirety, whose original name is Storebæltsforbindelsen. The East Bridge has a central span of 1624 m classifying it in first place in Europe between suspension bridges and in third place in the world rankings.
2. Xihoumen Bridge – China
Built on the archipelago of Zhoushan this bridge has the main span of 1650 m long. Its construction began in 2005, the central camapata was completed in December 2007 and the first traffic passage was made on 25 December 2009. The opening of the bridge was slightly delayed due to the collision of a ship against the left pylon. The two pylons supporting the bridge measure 211 m high.
1. Akashi Kaikyō Bridge – Japan
One thousand nine hundred and ninety-one meters, this is the length of the world’s longest central span of the Akashi Kaikyō Bridge. This bridge connects the island of Honshū with the island of Awaji. The construction began in 1988 after twenty years of planning and was inaugurated in 1998. The earthquake-proof qualities of this bridge were put to the test already in 1996 when the bridge was still under construction and the city of Kobe, where it stands the bridge was hit by an earthquake of 6.8 degrees on the Richter scale. The pylons of this bridge are 282.8 m high.
Tags: bridges, suspension bridges
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