Engineering feats -Bridging the great divide:

More impressive bridges

Last week we featured some modern marvels of engineering and no doubt most of you would have been greatly fascinated with the intricately designed bridges which have been built spanning the vast ocean and also mountains at breathtaking heights. There are many more such bridges around the world some of you may not have even heard of and today we feature a few more of these impressive mega bridges.

Donghai Bridge

(literally “East Sea Grand Bridge”) is the longest cross-sea bridge in the world and the longest bridge in Asia. It was completed on December 10, 2005. It has a total length of 32.5 kilometres (20.2 miles) and connects Shanghai and the offshore Yangshan deep-water port in

China. Most of the bridge is a low-level viaduct. There are also cable-stayed sections to allow for the passage of large ships, largest with span of 420 m. It was completed on December 10, 2005. It has a total length of 32.5 kilometres (20.2 mi) and connects mainland Shanghai and the offshore Yangshan deep-water port in China. Donghai Bridge is part of the S2 Hulu Expressway.

Langkawi sky-bridge

It looks as if the engineers have attempted to buid a bridge to the sky because the Langkawi sky-bridge in Malaysia is suspended at 700 metres above sea level .it spans 125 across the mountains, and people can get a magnificent views of the Andaman Sea and Thailand’s Tarutao Island below.

It’s set apart from other bridges by its curves that provide different perspectives of the landscapes.It is indeed one of the most spectacular bridges in the world .

Magdeburg Water Bridge

Magdeburg Water Bridge

The Magdeburg Water Bridge is a navigable aqueduct in Germany . The bridge connects the Elbe-Havel Canal to the Mittelland Canal, and allows ships to cross over the Elbe River. At 918 metres, it is the longest navigable aqueduct in the world. The Elbe-Havel and Mittelland canals had previously met near Magdeburg but on opposite sides of the Elbe. Ships moving between the two had to make a 12-kilometre detour, descending from the Mittelland Canal through the Rothensee boat lift into the Elbe, then sailing downstream on the river, before entering the Elbe-Havel Canal through Niegripp lock.

Low water levels in the Elbe often prevented fully laden canal barges from making this crossing, requiring time-consuming off-loading of cargo.Construction of the water link was started as early as in the 1930s but due to the World War 2 and subsequent division of Germany the work remained suspended till 1997. The aqueduct was finally completed and opened to the public in 2003.

Lake Pontchartrain Causeway

The Lake Pontchartrain Causeway, or the Causeway, consists of two parallel bridges crossing Lake Pontchartrain in southern Louisiana, United States.

The longer of the two bridges is 23.83 miles (38.35 km) long. Since 1969 it was listed by Guinness World Records as the longest bridge over water in the world; in 2011 in response to the opening of the longer Jiaozhou Bay Bridge in China, Guinness created two categories for bridges over water: continuous and aggregate lengths over water.

Lake Pontchartrain Causeway then became the longest bridge over water (continuous) while Jiaozhou Bay Bridge the longest bridge over water (aggregate).

 Chesapeake Bay Bridge

A major dual-span bridge in the US State of Maryland,the Chesapeake Bay Bridge (commonly known as the Bay Bridge) spans the Chesapeake Bay: it connects the state’s Eastern and Western Shore regions. At 4.3 miles (7km) in length, the original span was the world’s longest continous over-water steel structure when it opened in 1952. The bridge is officially named the William Preston Lane, Jr. Memorial Bridge after William Preston Lane, Jr. who, as governor of Maryland, implemented its construction.

Tianjin Grand Bridge

 TheTianjin Grand Bridge is a railway viaduct bridge recorded in Guinness World Records book as the second longest bridge in the world in year 2011. The length of the bridge is 71 miles (114 kilometres).

Confederation Bridge

The Confederation Bridge (French: Pont de la Confédération) is a bridge spanning the Abegweit Passage of Northumberland Strait, linking Prince Edward Island with mainland New Brunswick, Canada. It was commonly referred to as the “Fixed Link” by residents of Prince Edward Island prior to its official naming. Construction took place from the fall of 1993 to the spring of 1997, costing 1.3 billion US dollars.The 12.9-kilometre (8 mi) long bridge opened on 31 May 1997.

Seven Mile Bridge

The Seven Mile Bridge, in the Florida Keys, runs over a channel between the Gulf of Mexico and the Florida Strait, connecting Key Vaca (the location of the city if Marathon, Florida) in the Middle Keys to Little Duck Key in the Lower Keys. Among the longest bridges in existence when it was built, it is one of the many bridges on US 1 in the Keys, where the road is called the Overseas Highway.

Hangzhou Bay Bridge

Hangzhou Bay Bridge is a long highway bridge with a cable-stayed portion across Hangzhou Bay in the eastern coastal region of China.

It connects the municipalities of Jiaxing and Ningbo in Zhejiang province. At 35.673 km (22 mi) in length, Hangzhou Bay Bridge is one of the longest trans-oceanic bridges in the world.

Manchac Swamp Bridge

The Manchac Swamp Bridge is a twin concrete trestle bridge in the US state of Louisiana. With a total length of 22.80 miles (36.69 km) it is one of the longest bridges in the world over water. The bridge carries Interstate 55 over the Manchac Swamp in Louisiana, and represents one-third of the highway’s approximately 66 miles in Louisiana.

Weinan Weihe Grand Bridge

The Weinan Weihe Grand Bridge is a part of the Zhengzhou–Xi’an High-Speed Railway which connects Zhengzhou and Xi’an, in China..

The bridge is 79,732 metres (261,588 ft) (49.5 Miles) long crossing the Wei River twice, as well as many other rivers, highways and railways.

Upon its completion, it was the longest bridge in the world, but surpassed by two new bridges on Beijing–Shanghai High-Speed Railway that completed in 2010.The bridge was completed in 2008 but the railway line itself did not open until February 6, 2010

Facts and pix: Internet