The longest bridge in the world was built by the Chinese in just four years

Tangjiang/Prague - In recent years, China has become a clear leader in bridge construction. On the railway line opened last year from Beijing to Shanghai, there are 244 bridges, including the two longest in the world (with astonishing lengths of nearly 165 and 114 kilometers). The longest bridge outside Asia is the American bridge over Lake Pontchartrain, measuring only 38 km, while the European record is held by the 17.2 km long Vasco da Gama bridge in Portugal and the Czech Radotín Bridge on the Prague R1 bypass, which measures just 2291 meters. The longest bridge in the world, the Danyang–Kunshan Grand Bridge in eastern China, measures 164.8 kilometers (approximately the distance from Prague to Aš) and was opened a year ago, on June 30, 2011.
      Along the entire 1318 km long route, in addition to 244 bridges, there are also 22 tunnels with a total length of over 16 km. Among the bridges is not only the longest in the world but also the second longest bridge in the world, the 114 km long Tianjin Grand Bridge, the fifth longest in the world, the 48 km long Beijing Grand Bridge, as well as an 18 km long bridge between the cities of Changzhou and Taizhou, a 12 km long bridge near Nanjing, and an 11 km long bridge over a canal in the city of Zhenjiang.
      The longest bridge in the world began construction in 2006 and was completed in four years. It was built by around 10,000 workers, and the cost soared to 8.5 billion dollars (the entire route from Beijing to Shanghai cost about 32 billion dollars). The bridge runs alongside the third longest river in the world, the Yangtze, in areas of rice fields, numerous tributaries, and small lakes. A part of the bridge, measuring nine kilometers, even runs over Lake Yangcheng near the city of Suzhou.
      The bridge has approximately 2000 piers with a span of 80 meters and is made up of 450,000 tons of steel. According to Chinese officials, the bridge is designed to withstand the impact of a strong typhoon or an earthquake with a strength of up to eight on the Richter scale.
      The construction of one of the longest railway lines in the world from the Chinese capital Beijing to the economic capital of the country Shanghai was built mainly due to the increasing traffic between the two cities. The travel time between the two cities has been reduced to about half.
The line features 24 stops, and trains operate at two speeds. Trains traveling at 300 km/h make only one stop in Nanjing, taking 4 hours and 48 minutes. Slower trains, traveling at 250 km/h, stop everywhere, and the journey lasts up to 7 hours and 52 minutes, sometimes even up to nine hours.

The longest bridges in the world:

	Name	Length (m)	Country	Year of opening	Type
1.	Danyang–Kunshan Grand Bridge	164,800	China	2011	railway
2	Tianjin Grand Bridge	113,700	China	2011	railway
3.	Weihe Grand Bridge	79,732	China	2010	railway
4.	Bang Na Expressway	54,000	Thailand	2000	road
5.	Beijing Grand Bridge	48,153	China	2011	railway
6.	Qingdao Bridge (also known as Jiaozhou Bay Bridge)	42,500	China	2011	road (*)
7.	Bridge over Lake Pontchartrain	38,442	USA	1956	road
8.	Bridge over the Manchac Swamps	36,710	USA	1970	road
9.	Yangcun Bridge	35,812	China	2007	railway
10.	Bridge over Changzhou Bay	35,673	China	2007	road

* - longest bridge over water