The incredible £6.9bn bridge that’s 102 miles long – the longest in the world

The world’s longest passes through incredibly challenging uneven terrain, ranging from canals and lakes to lowland rice paddies. Yet, incredibly, it still took just four years to build. 

At 102.4 miles long, the was awarded the title of the longest bridge in the world by the Guinness World Record in June 2011, the same month it was officially launched.

This outstanding feat of engineering, built between 2006 and 2010, is located in Jiangsu province in eastern and links Shanghai to Nanjing, running roughly parallel to the Yangtze River.

It even has a 5.6-mile-long section that transverses the open waters of the Yangcheng Lake in Suzhou, which is supported by a staggering 2,000 pillars and steel cables. 

The construction of the Danyang–Kunshan viaduct involved some 10,000 workers and cost around £6.9 billion – or £41.5 million per mile.

The cable-stayed bridge consists of two main sections: the Danyang section, which is 32.5 miles long, and the Kunshan section, which is 69.9 miles long. 

The Danyang–Kunshan Grand Bridge averages about 100 metres above the ground and was built to withstand natural phenomena such as strong typhoons and up to magnitude eight. It is expected to have a lifespan of over 100 years. 

It was also designed to allow ships to pass underneath it and has a clearance of 150 metres in these sections. 

Designed and built by the China Road and Bridge Corporation – a government-funded company – this bridge is part of the Beijing-Shanghai High-Speed Railway.

This infrastructure was developed to alleviate local rail traffic in the Chinese province which counts some 80.4 million residents, but the bridge also has two lanes for cars. The bridge is said to have reduced travel time between the two cities from around four hours to just over one hour.

While the Danyang–Kunshan Grand Bridge is particularly impressive, China is home also to the fourth, fifth, sixth and eighth-longest bridges in the world.

China also holds the record for the world’s highest bridge – the (or Beipanjiang Bridge), which has a deck height of 565 metres. Located over the Nizhu River gorge between the provinces of Guizhou and Yunnan, this four-lane cable-stayed bridge has towers which rise to 269 metres tall, among the tallest in the world. It was completed in 2016. 

The second-longest bridge in the world, however, is the in Taiwan, which measures more than 97.7 miles. Japan built the Kita–Yaita Viaduct, the third-longest bridge in the world, measuring 71.1 miles.

The longest bridge in the UK is the , which is located in Birmingham and measures around 3.5 miles.