Top 10 Longest Bridges in the World

The undisputed number one. Much of this bridge floats above the Yangtze River Delta, an area full of rivers, lakes and rice paddies. Perhaps the most impressive thing is the construction speed: with 10,000 workers, this monster project was completed in record time. Guinness World Records confirms that since it opened in 2011, no other bridge has come anywhere near this length.

In a close second place we find this viaduct in Taiwan. It is part of the Taiwan High Speed Rail. Length is not the only challenge here; Taiwan is regularly hit by severe earthquakes. Engineers designed the bridge to withstand huge shocks, so trains can come to a safe stop in an emergency without derailing.

Back to China (and we will be staying there for a while). Like number 1, this bridge is part of the important route between Beijing and Shanghai. It has no fewer than 3,092 piers supporting the track. It was built to withstand the huge temperature differences in the region and the pressure of trains racing past at 300 km/h.

It's becoming a pattern: another railway bridge in China. This bridge is located near the city of Tianjin and runs for kilometers through an area where several railway lines and highways converge. The great thing about viaducts like this is that they take up very little ground space; farmers can simply keep farming their land underneath.

When this bridge was completed in 2008, it was briefly the longest in the world, but it has since been overtaken by its more modern siblings. The bridge crosses the Wei River twice but mostly runs over land. During construction, workers had to deal with harsh winters, which created huge technical challenges to get the concrete to cure properly.

This may be the most impressive one on the list. It is the longest open-sea bridge in the world, connecting three major cities in the Pearl River Delta. And it is not just a bridge: halfway along, the road dives into the sea via an artificial island and continues as a tunnel, so large container ships can still sail over it. Journalists at The Guardian often describe the project as a political statement by China to forge the region together, both physically and symbolically.

Finally a bridge for cars instead of trains! This gigantic highway in Thailand, near Bangkok, floats above another highway (Route 34). The goal was simple: solve Bangkok's legendary traffic jams. Because the bridge technically does not cross water (but a road), it was excluded from some record lists for years, but structurally it is definitely a bridge.

Just south of the Chinese capital lies this enormous viaduct. It is the first section of the famous high-speed line heading south. The bridge is so long that passengers on the train often don't even realize they are floating dozens of meters above the ground, until they look outside and see cities disappearing beneath them.

The pride of the United States. This bridge in Louisiana consists of two parallel roads running straight across the huge Lake Pontchartrain. It is the longest continuous bridge over water in the world (number 6 on this list is interrupted by a tunnel). Driving across it is a surreal experience: visitors on Atlas Obscura often describe how, midway through the drive, you lose sight of land on both sides and see nothing but water.

We end where we started: in China. This is not a high-speed line but a metro line built entirely on a viaduct. Because Wuhan is a city with lots of water and rivers, the planners decided to send the metro into the air instead of underground. Travel guides often recommend this line to tourists, because the metro gives you a perfect view of the city skyline.