Famous Bridges of the World

Bridges have always been marvels of engineering and have been playing a key role in the development of relations, trade, and commerce and have always remained true to their names and functions of bridging the gaps wherever required. Moreover there are bridges that beautiful and are really magnificent to look at. There are number of bridges all over the world. There are large, tall and long bridges and they are included in the famous list since it is hard to just ignore them. Here is a list of some of the famous bridges that I had to mention.

Akashi-Kaikyo Bridge

This bridge connects Kobe and Awaji, which are islands in Japan. The construction was complete in the year 1998. The height of this bridge is approximately 282.8 meters and the length is around 3910 meters. It is a cable stayed bridge and is the longest bridge of this type in the world, leaving behind Humber Bridge in United Kingdom which is somewhere around 1410 meters. The construction of the Akashi-Kaikyo Bridge is wind and earthquake resistant. This bridge can resist wind speed of around eighty meters per second and earthquakes that can be as strong as 8.5 on the Richter scale. This bridge has the longest center suspension and longest two-tower suspension as well.

Golden Gate Bridge

This bridge is a part of Highway 101 between San Francisco and Marin counties of United States of America. The construction work was completed by May 27th in the year 1937. The height of the bridge is somewhere around 750 feet and the length is approximately 2742.9 meters. This bridge is the longest suspension bridge in the world and the span of this bridge is still the second largest. It had the tallest suspension towers as well but then Mackinac Bridge that was constructed after Golden Gate Bridge in Michigan took that credit away from this bridge. The Golden Gate Bridge appears red though it was actually meant to orange vermilion, which is the official color. It is considered to be one of the greatest examples of bridge engineering.

Great Belt Bridge

This bridge is called the Great Belt Bridge as it passes across the Great Belt of Denmark. It is a road suspension bridge and also has a railway tunnel that passes between Zealand and Sprogo. The decision to construct the bridge was taken in 1986 and it was opened to the railway link in 1997 and to read traffic a year later. This Bridge was the most ambitious project in the history of Denmark. The construction of this bridge started in 1988, which led to a great uproar. Denmark was sued by the Finnish state in the International Court of Justice, as the Finnish offshore Units were not being able to pass under the bridge. This could be settled only when the Danish Prime Minister promised Finland suitable compensation in return. The Eastern Bridge that is part of the main Great Belt is the world’s second longest suspension bridge. Necessary steps have been taken to avoid any kind of environmental problems that might have occurred due to the construction of this bridge.

Milau Viaduct

This bridge is located near Milau in the south of France and this bridge covers the valley of River Tarn. It is cable-stayed road bridge, which is the tallest bridge in the world that allows vehicular passage. The mast summit of this bridge is approximately 343 meters. The viaduct is part of the autoroute from Paris to Beziers. This bridge has made new records in the world history by having the highest pylons in the world, it also has the highest mast in the world and it is also the highest road bridge deck in the world. This bridge has seven pylons on which stands the eight span steel roadway. The roadway weights approximately 36,000 tons and is somewhere around 2,460 meters long. The bridge carries two lanes of traffic and one safety lies on either direction. This bridge was inaugurated on Dec 14th of 2004, quite ahead of the schedule that was planned for Jan 10th, 2005. The viaduct was opened on Dec 16th, 2005. This bridge had the best effect on the local economy of the place and because the Mayor of Milau approved the construction of nearly 3 hotels and approximately 100 buildings within the time period of 18 months. The traffic in the place has increased and so has the income of the local people.

Bridges make the inaccessible parts of the world accessible to people and help us to overcome the physical obstacles. The function of the bridge determines the design .The construction of a bridge is toilsome but interesting as well as dangerous since it involves conquering and bringing under control the invincible forces of nature. These famous bridges were not constructed to acquire fame, they did so eventually.