The world's longest suspension bridges are listed according to the length of their main span (i.e., the length of suspended roadway between the bridge's towers). The most common method of comparing the sizes of suspension bridges, the length of main span often correlates with the height of the towers and the engineering complexity involved in designing and constructing the bridge.

Suspension bridges have the longest spans of any type of bridge. Cable-stayed bridges, the next longest design, are practical for spans up to around one kilometer. Thus, the 15 longest bridges on this list all are suspended-deck suspension bridges and currently are the 15 longest of all types of vehicular bridge.

Completed suspension bridges

This list includes only completed suspension bridges that carry automobiles or trains. It does not include cable-stayed bridges, footbridges or pipeline bridges (Why is the new Incheon bridge not included here? It's suspension portion is about 700m).

Note: Click on each bridge's rank to go to the bridge's official Web site. Ranks with a red asterisk (*) do not have official Web sites, nor do they have English-language versions and are linked instead to a reference entry.

Note: The main span of The Xihoumen Bridge was completed in 2007, however the bridge has not yet opened for traffic. Completion is scheduled for October 2009.

	Rank	Name	Location	Main span metres	Main span feet	Year opened
		Akashi-Kaikyō Bridge (The longest from 1998 to the present)	Kobe- Awaji Route, Japan	1,991	6,529	1998
	*	Xihoumen Bridge	Zhoushan Archipelago, China	1,650	5,414	2009? (see note above)
		Great Belt Bridge (also known as the Storebælt Bridge; Danish: Storebæltsbroen)	Halskov-Sprogø, Denmark	1,624	5,328	1998

Bridges under construction

Most of the large suspension bridges built in recent years have been in the People's Republic of China.As the following list shows, most of the bridges under construction are also in China.

Planned and proposed bridges

History of longest suspension spans

Sources:

Other record holders

• Tacoma Narrows Bridge (USA) 853 m—1950 & 2007. The pair of suspension bridges with the longest spans in the world.
• Royal Gorge Bridge (USA) 1929 The highest (384 m) suspension bridge in the world.
• Tsing Ma Bridge (Hong Kong) 1,377 m—1997. The longest span carrying road and rail traffic.
• George Washington Bridge (USA). Suspension bridge with the most lanes of traffic—fourteen.

See also

• List of spans (list of remarkable permanent wire spans)

References

1. http://koti.kontu.la/jvirola/Huangpu/silta_1-09.pdf
2. http://koti.kontu.la/jvirola/casu.rtf
3. Hardangerbrua (norwegian) and
4. http://wowturkey.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=22973&start=80
5. Byggestart så snart som mulig (Construction start as soon as possible). (Note that the site is a lobbyist site funded by the Narvik city)

Note: Some of the information posted on the following sites may differ from that above. As of February 21 2006, the sites were out of date or inaccurate as noted in parenthesis

• Denenberg, David, Bridgemeister.com (an extensive inventory of roughly 2,000 suspension bridges)
• Janberg, Nicolas, Suspension bridges, Structurae.de (an extensive database of structures including many suspension bridges)
• Durkee, Jackson, "World's Longest Bridge Spans", National Steel Bridge Alliance, May 24, 1999 (out of date)
• The World's Greatest Bridges, Archive.org copy of The Bridge over the Strait of Messina website (out of date and other errors)
• List of longest spans, Pub Quiz Help (includes bridges that have not yet been completed)
• Steel bridges in the world, and other bridge statistics, The Swedish Institute of Steel Construction, March, 2003 (out of date)
• Virola, Eur Ing Juhani, Two Millennia - Two Long-Span Suspension Bridges, Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering, ATSE Focus No 124, November/December 2002 (revised information up to date as of 2005)
• Virola, Eur Ing Juhani, World's Longest Bridge Spans Laboratory of Bridge Engineering (LBE), Helsinki University of Technology (includes bridges that have not yet been completed)

External links

• Progress of Center Span on Long-Span Bridges at the Honshū--Shikoku Bridge Expressway Co.

		Runyang Bridge	Yangtze River, China	1,490	4,888	2005
Humber Bridge (The longest from 1981 until 1998)	Barton-upon-Humber - Hull, England, UK	1,410	4,626	1981
	*	Jiangyin Suspension Bridge	Yangtze River, China	1,385	4,543	1999
		Tsing Ma Bridge (the longest carrying road and rail traffic)	Tsing Yi-Ma Wan, Hong Kong	1,377	4,518	1997
		Verrazano-Narrows Bridge (The longest from 1964 until 1981)	New York City (Brooklyn–Staten Island), USA	1,298	4,260	1964
		Golden Gate Bridge (The longest from 1937 until 1964)	San Francisco-Marin County, CA, USA	1,280	4,200	1937
Linked photo	*	Yangluo Bridge	Yangtze River, China	1,280	4,200	2007
		Högakustenbron	Ångermanälven river , Sweden	1,210	3,970	1997
		Mackinac Bridge	Mackinaw City - St. Ignace, Michigan USA	1,158	3,800	1957
		Minami Bisan-Seto Bridge	Kojima-Sakaide Route, Japan	1,118	3,609	1989
Linked photo		Huangpu Bridge	Guangzhou	1,108	3,635	2008
	*	Fatih Sultan Mehmet	Istanbul, Turkey	1,090	3,576	1988
	*	Boğaziçi	Istanbul, Turkey	1,074	3,524	1973
		George Washington Bridge (The longest from 1931 until 1937)	Fort Lee, NJ - New York City NY (Manhattan), USA	1,067	3,500	1931
		Third Kurushima-Kaikyo Bridge	Onomichi-Imabari Route, Japan	1,030	3,379	1999
		Second Kurushima-Kaikyo Bridge	Onomichi-Imabari Route, Japan	1,020	3,346	1999
	*	Ponte 25 de Abril	Lisbon, Portugal	1,013	3,323	1966
		Forth Road Bridge	Firth of Forth, Scotland, UK	1,006	3,300	1964
		Kita Bisan-Seto Bridge	Kojima-Sakaide Route, Japan	990	3,248	1988
		Severn Bridge	River Severn, England/Wales, UK	988	3,240	1966
	*	Yichang Bridge	Yichang (Yangtze River), China	960	3,150	2001
		Shimotsui-Seto Bridge	Kojima-Sakaide Route, Japan	940	3,084	1988
	*	Xiling Bridge	Yichang (Yangtze River), China	900	2,952	1996
	*	Humen Pearl River Bridge	Dongguan (Pearl River), Guangdong province, China	888	2,913	1997
		Ohnaruto Bridge	Kobe-Naruto Route, Japan	876	2,874	1985
		Tacoma Narrows Bridge (westbound)	Tacoma, WA, USA	853	2,800	1950
		Tacoma Narrows Bridge (eastbound)	Tacoma, WA, USA	853	2,800	2007
	*	Askøy Bridge	Bergen, Norway	850	2,789	1992
		Innoshima Bridge	Onomichi-Imabari Route, Japan	770	2,526	1983
	*	Akinada Bridge	Akinada Islands (Hiroshima Pref.), Japan	750	2,461	2000
	*	Semipalatinsk Bridge	Semipalatinsk (Irtysh river), Kazakhstan	750	2,461	2000
		Al Zampa Memorial Bridge	Carquinez Strait, CA, USA	728	2,388	2003
	*	Hakucho Bridge	Muroran (Hokkaidō Pref.), Japan	720	2,362	1998
	*	Angostura Bridge	Ciudad Bolivar, Venezuela	712	2,336	1967
	*	Kanmonkyo Bridge	Honshū-Kyūshū, Japan	712	2,336	1973
		San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge (Yerba Buena Island to anchorage)	San Francisco - Oakland, CA, USA	704	2,310	1936
		San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge (San Francisco to anchorage)	San Francisco - Oakland, CA, USA	704	2,310	1936
		Bronx-Whitestone Bridge	New York, NY, (The Bronx - Queens) USA	701	2,300	1939
		Stord Bridge	Stord, Norway	677	2,221	2001
	*	Pierre Laporte Bridge	Quebec City, Canada	668	2,190	1970
		Delaware Memorial Bridge I	New Castle, DE - Pennsville, NJ, USA	655	2,150	1951
		Delaware Memorial Bridge II	New Castle, DE - Pennsville, NJ, USA	655	2,150	1968
	*	Haicang Bridge	Xiamen, Fujian Province, China	648	2,126	1999
	*	Gjemnessund Bridge	Kristiansund, Norway	623	2,044	1992
		Walt Whitman Bridge	Philadelphia, PA - Gloucester City, NJ, USA	610	2,000	1957
	*	Tancarville Bridge	Le Havre, France	608	1,995	1959
	*	New Little Belt Bridge	Little Belt, Denmark	600	1,969	1970
		First Kurushima-Kaikyo Bridge	Onomichi-Imabari Route, Japan	600	1,969	1999
Linked photo	*	E'gongyan Bridge	Chongqing, Sichuan Province, China (Yangtze River)	600	1,969	2000
	*	Osterøy Bridge	Osterøy, Norway	595	1,952	1997
Linked photo	*	Second Wanxian Bridge	Chongqing, China	580	1,903	2004
		Bømla Bridge	Bømlo, Norway	577	1,893	2001
	*	Rainbow Bridge	Tokyo, Japan	570	1,870	1993
		Ambassador Bridge (The longest from 1929 until 1931)	Detroit, Michigan, USA– Windsor, Ontario, Canada	564	1,850	1929
		Hakata-Ohshima Bridge	Onomichi-Imabari Route, Japan	560	1,837	1988
Linked photo	*	Zhongxian Yangtze River Bridge	Chongqing, China	560	1,837	2001
		Throgs Neck Bridge	New York, NY, (The Bronx - Queens) USA	549	1,800	1961
	Benjamin Franklin Bridge (The longest from 1926 until 1929)	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania–Camden, New Jersey, USA	533	1,750	1926
	*	Skjomen Bridge	Narvik, Norway	525	1,722	1972
	*	Kvalsund Bridge	Hammerfest, Norway	525	1,722	1977
Linked photo	*	Matadi Bridge	Matadi, Democratic Republic of the Congo	520	1,706	1983
	*	Emmerich Rhine Bridge	Emmerich am Rhein, Germany	500	1,640	1965
Linked photo	*	Dazi Bridge	Dazi, China	500	1,640	1984
	*	Gwangan Bridge	Busan, South Korea	500	1,640	2002
		Bear Mountain Bridge (The longest from 1924 until 1926)	Peekskill, NY, USA	497	1,632	1924
		Williamsburg Bridge (The longest from 1903 until 1924)	New York, NY, (Brooklyn - Manhattan) USA	488	1,600	1903
		W. Preston Lane Memorial Bridge I	Chesapeake Bay, MD, USA	488	1,600	1952
	*	Newport Bridge	Newport, Rhode Island, RI, USA	488	1,600	1969
		W. Preston Lane Memorial Bridge II	Chesapeake Bay, MD, USA	488	1,600	1973
		Brooklyn Bridge (The longest from 1883 until 1903)	New York, NY, (Brooklyn - Manhattan) USA	486	1,596	1883
	*	Lions' Gate Bridge	West Vancouver - Vancouver, British Columbia Canada	473	1,550	1938
	*	Sotra Bridge	Bergen, Norway	468	1,535	1971
	*	Hirado Bridge	Hirado Island, Japan	460	1,509	1977
	*	Vincent Thomas Bridge	San Pedro, CA, USA	457	1,499	1963
		Mid-Hudson Bridge	Poughkeepsie, NY, USA	456	1,495	1930
Linked photo	*	Shantou Bay Bridge	Guangdong province, China	452	1,483	1996
Linked photo	*	Fengdu Bridge	Sichuan (Yangtze River), China	450	1,476	1996
		Manhattan Bridge	New York, NY, (Manhattan - Brooklyn) USA	448	1,470	1909
	*	Lysefjord Bridge	Rogaland, Norway	446	1,463	1997
		Angus L. Macdonald Bridge	Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada	441	1,447	1955
		A. Murray MacKay Bridge	Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada	427	1,400	1970
		Robert F. Kennedy Bridge	New York, NY, (Manhattan - The Bronx - Queens) USA	421	1,380	1936
	*	Älvsborg Bridge	Gothenburg, Sweden	417	1,368	1966
Linked photo	*	Namhae Bridge	Namhae, South Korea	404	1,325	1973
	*	Aquitaine Bridge	Bordeaux, France	394	1,293	1967
	*	Amu Daria River Bridge	Bukhara, Uzbekistan	390	1,280	1964
	*	Cologne Rodenkirchen Bridge	Cologne, Germany	378	1,240	1954
		St. Johns Bridge	Portland, OR, USA	368	1,207	1931
	*	Wakato Narrows Bridge	Kitakyūshū, Japan	367	1,204	1962
	*	Mount Hope Bridge	Mount Hope Bay, RI, USA	366	1,200	1929
		Ogdensburg Prescott International Bridge	Ogdensburg, NY, USA - Prescott, Ontario, Canada	351	1,151	1960
	*	Hercilio Luz Bridge	Florianopolis, Brazil	340	1,115	1926
		Bidwell Bar Bridge	Oroville, CA, USA	338	1,108	1965
	*	Varodd Bridge	Kristiansand, Norway	337	1,106	1956
		Tamar Bridge	Plymouth-Saltash, United Kingdom	335	1,100	1961
	*	Feda Fjord Bridge	Feda, Vest-Agder, Norway	335	1,100	2006
	*	Deer Isle Bridge	Penobscot Bay, ME, USA	329	1,088	1939
Linked photo	*	Otto Beit Bridge	Chirundu, Zambia to Chirundu, Zimbabwe	328	1,085	1939
	*	Rombak Bridge	Nordland, Norway	325	1,066	1964
	*	Nærøysund Bridge	Nord-Trøndelag, Norway	325	1,066	1981
	*	Simon Kenton Bridge	Maysville, KY, USA	323	1,060	1932
	*	Île d'Orléans Bridge	Quebec City, Canada	323	1,059	1936
	*	John A. Roebling Suspension Bridge (The longest from 1867 until 1883)	Cincinnati, OH, USA	322	1,057	1867
	*	Dent Bridge	Orofino, ID, USA	320	1,050	1971
	*	Cologne Mulheim Bridge	Cologne, Germany	315	1,033	1951
	*	Wheeling Suspension Bridge (The longest from 1849 until 1867)	Wheeling, WV, USA	308	1,010	1849
	*	Konohana Bridge	Osaka, Japan	300	984	1987
	*	Chavanon Viaduct	Merlines and Messeix, France (Chavanon Valley)	300	984	2000
		Yeongjong Grand Bridge (the longest self-anchored suspension bridge)	Incheon, South Korea	300	984	2000
	*	Elizabeth Bridge	Budapest, Hungary	290	951	1964
	*	Tjeldsund Bridge	Harstad, Norway	290	951	1967
Linked photo	*	Grand-Mère Bridge	Grand-Mère, Canada	289	948	1929
	*	Puente Colgante de Occidente (West Suspension Bridge)	Santa Fé de Antioquia, Colombia	287	940	1894
	*	Rügenbridge	Stralsund, Germany	583,3	1 913	2007
Name
Location
Main span
Scheduled opening date
Notes
Si Du River Bridge	China		2009	Substantially complete. It will replace the Royal Gorge Bridge as the highest in the world when it opens.
Nanjing Fourth Yangtze Bridge	China		2010
Aizhai Bridge	China		2009
Balinghe Bridge	near Guanling, China		2009
Taizhou Bridge	near Taizhou, China		2010	Two spans connecting three towers.
Ma'anshan Bridge	China		2010	Two main spans.
Beipanjiang Suspension Bridge	China		2009
Eastern section of the San Francisco – Oakland Bay Bridge	San Francisco – Oakland, California, USA		2013	This will be the largest self-anchored suspension bridge ever constructed. With one tower, it will have two asymmetric spans of 180 and 385 meters.
Hardanger Bridge	Hardangerfjorden, Norway		2013	Construction start was in January 2009, and is estimated to be completed in 2013.
Name
Location
Main span
Status
Notes
Sunda Strait Bridge	Java to Sumatra, Indonesia	about	Preliminary work	This project has been approved by the Indonesian government. If completed, it will not only be the world's longest suspension bridge (26 km), but will also have a main span of about —roughly fifty percent longer than the current record.
Unnamed	Qiongzhou Strait, China	about	Preliminary work	A suspension bridge is being considered to cross the 22.5 kilometer wide Qiongzhou Strait. One design consists of four bridges strung together with four main spans of 2,000 meters, two main-spans of 1,800 meters, five anchorages and 10 towers. If completed this bridge will assume six of the top seven longest spans.
Unnamed	Aizhai Gorge in Hunan province, China		Planned
İzmit Bay Bridge	Marmara Sea, Turkey		Planned	Bidding is expected to start in June 2009 . The original design called for a long span, but recent images depict several shorter spans.
Chacao Channel bridge	Chiloé to mainland Chile		On hold	This unusual design has two main spans of 1,055 meters and 1,100 meters without an anchorage between them. Construction was supposed to begin in 2007 and completed in 2012, but because of cost overruns, the project is now on hold.
Strait of Messina Bridge	Sicily to mainland Italy		Planned	The project was canceled on 11 October 2006 by the Romano Prodi-led government amid controversy concerning the bridge's cost and feared Mafia influence. The new government from 2008 led by Silvio Berlusconi wants to pick up the project again. Preliminary works will begin in December 2009. The main construction is expected to begin before the end of 2010 and completed in 2016.
Gibraltar Bridge	Spain to Morocco	?	Proposed	Some designs have suspension spans of several kilometers. The suspension cables of a very long bridge might be suspended from the ends of cable-stayed struts extending diagonally from huge pylons. However, as of 2008, the feasibility of a tunnel is being considered instead.
Hålogaland Bridge	Narvik, Norway		Plans under consideration	The bridge will reduce the distance between Narvik and Bjerkvik by 17 km. The government of Norway has declared that it wants to build it, with construction to start possibly in 2011, and an opening date in 2015. See :no:Hålogalandsbrua.
Bridge
Location
length m (ft)
Year became longest span
Notes
Maya Bridge at Yaxchilan	Mexico		600	Hemp-rope simple suspension footbridge. No longer standing.
Luding Bridge	China		1705	Chain simple suspension footbridge.
Schuylkill River Bridge	USA		1816	Footbridge. The first wire bridge ever built. No longer standing.
Union Bridge	UK		1820	The oldest in the world still in use today.
Menai Suspension Bridge	UK		1826
Zähringen Bridge	Switzerland		1834	The bridge was removed in the 1920s.
Wheeling Suspension Bridge	USA		1849	The longest deck span from 1849 until 1866.
Lewiston-Queenston Bridge	USA and Canada		1851	The longest cable span from 1851 until it was destroyed by wind in 1864. However, the road deck span was only 258 m.
John A. Roebling Suspension Bridge	USA		1866
Niagara Clifton Bridge	USA and Canada		1869	Replaced in 1899.
Brooklyn Bridge	USA		1883
Williamsburg Bridge	USA		1903	It was the longest suspension span but not the longest span of all bridges. The Forth Railway Bridge with two spans of 521 m was longer.
Bear Mountain Bridge	USA		1924	It was the longest suspension span but not the longest span of all bridges. The Quebec Bridge with a span of 549 m was longer. The first suspension bridge to have a concrete deck. The construction methods pioneered in building it would make possible several much larger projects to follow.
Benjamin Franklin Bridge	USA		1926	It was the longest suspension span but not the longest span of all bridges.
Ambassador Bridge	USA and Canada		1929	Since this bridge was built, the record for longest bridge span has only been held by suspension bridges.
George Washington Bridge	USA		1931	The first span longer than a kilometer.
Golden Gate Bridge	USA		1937
Verrazano-Narrows Bridge	USA		1964
Humber Bridge	UK		1981
Akashi-Kaikyo Bridge	Japan		1998	The longest span since 1998.