The world's longest suspension bridges are listed according to the length of their main

span Span may refer to: Science, technology and engineering * Span (unit), the width of a human hand * Span (engineering), a section between two intermediate supports * Wingspan, the distance between the wingtips of a bird or aircraft * Sorbitan ester ...

(i.e. the length of suspended roadway between the bridge's towers). The length of main span is the most common method of comparing the sizes of

suspension bridge A suspension bridge is a type of bridge in which the deck (bridge), deck is hung below suspension wire rope, cables on vertical suspenders. The first modern examples of this type of bridge were built in the early 1800s. Simple suspension bridg ...

s, often correlating with the height of the towers and the engineering complexity involved in designing and constructing the bridge. If one bridge has a longer span than another it does not necessarily mean that the bridge is longer from shore to shore (or from

abutment An abutment is the substructure at the ends of a bridge span or dam supporting its superstructure. Single-span bridges have abutments at each end which provide vertical and lateral support for the span, as well as acting as retaining walls ...

to abutment). Suspension bridges have the longest spans of any type of bridge.

Cable-stayed bridge A cable-stayed bridge has one or more ''towers'' (or ''pylons''), from which cables support the bridge deck. A distinctive feature are the cables or stays, which run directly from the tower to the deck, normally forming a fan-like pattern o ...

s, the next longest design, are practical for spans up to just over 1 kilometre. Therefore, , the 31 longest bridges on this list are the 31 longest spans of all types of vehicular bridges (other than floating

pontoon bridge A pontoon bridge (or ponton bridge), also known as a floating bridge, uses float (nautical), floats or shallow-draft (hull), draft boats to support a continuous deck for pedestrian and vehicle travel. The buoyancy of the supports limits the maxi ...

s). Currently, the

1915 Çanakkale Bridge The 1915 Çanakkale Bridge ( tr, 1915 Çanakkale Köprüsü), is a road suspension bridge in the province of Çanakkale in northwestern Turkey. Situated just south of the coastal towns of Lapseki and Gelibolu, the bridge spans the Dardanelles st ...

in Turkey holds the record since opening to traffic in March 2022, with a span of . Since 1998, the

Akashi Kaikyō Bridge The is a suspension bridge which links the city of Kobe on the Japanese island of Honshu to Iwaya on Awaji Island. It is part of the Kobe-Awaji-Naruto Expressway, and crosses the busy and turbulent Akashi Strait (''Akashi Kaikyō'' in Japanese ...

in Japan previously held the record, with a span of 1,991 metres (6,532 ft).

Completed suspension bridges

This list includes only completed suspension bridges that carry automobiles or trains. It does not include cable-stayed bridges,

footbridge A footbridge (also a pedestrian bridge, pedestrian overpass, or pedestrian overcrossing) is a bridge designed solely for pedestrians.''Oxford English Dictionary'' While the primary meaning for a bridge is a structure which links "two points at a ...

s, or

pipeline bridge A pipeline bridge is a bridge for running a pipeline over a river or another obstacle. Pipeline bridges for liquids and gases are, as a rule, only built when it is not possible to run the pipeline on a conventional bridge or under the river. Howev ...

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.

History of longest suspension spans

Sources:

Other record-holding suspension bridges

* Sidu River Bridge (China). Opened in 2009, it is the highest suspension bridge in the world at 472 m elevation and the second highest bridge of any type. * San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge Eastern Span (

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

, United States). Opened in 2013, it is the widest bridge in the world (), the most expensive bridge and the largest

self-anchored suspension bridge A self-anchored suspension bridge is a suspension bridge type in which the main cables attach to the ends of the deck, rather than directly to the ground or via large anchorages. The design is well-suited for construction atop elevated piers, o ...

ever constructed. *

Tacoma Narrows Bridge The Tacoma Narrows Bridge is a pair of twin suspension bridges that span the Tacoma Narrows strait of Puget Sound in Pierce County, Washington. The bridges connect the city of Tacoma with the Kitsap Peninsula and carry State Route 16 (know ...

s (

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

, United States). Opened in 1950 and 2007, the pair of bridges with the longest spans in the world (). *

Yavuz Sultan Selim Bridge The Yavuz Sultan Selim Bridge ( tr, Yavuz Sultan Selim Köprüsü) is a bridge for rail and motor vehicle transit over the Bosphorus strait, to the north of two existing suspension bridges in Istanbul, Turkey. It was initially named the Third Bos ...

(Turkey). Opened in 2016, it has longest span carrying road and rail traffic (). *

Yangsigang Yangtze River Bridge __NOTOC__ The Yangsigang Yangtze River Bridge is a suspension bridge in Wuhan, Hubei, China. It opened to traffic on October 8, 2019 and is the third longest suspension bridge span in the world and overall the longest in China. The bridge span ...

(China). Opened in 2019 with the longest double deck span (). *

George Washington Bridge The George Washington Bridge is a double-decked suspension bridge spanning the Hudson River, connecting Fort Lee, New Jersey, with Manhattan in New York City. The bridge is named after George Washington, the first president of the United St ...

(

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

and

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

, United States). Opened in 1931, it is the suspension bridge with the most lanes of traffic (at fourteen total on two levels). * Kurushima-Kaikyō Bridge (Japan). Opened in 1999, it is the world's longest suspension bridge structure. *

Great Seto Bridge The is a series of double deck bridges connecting Okayama and Kagawa prefectures in Japan across a series of five small islands in the Seto Inland Sea. Built over the period 1978–88, it is one of the three routes of the Honshū–Shikoku Br ...

(Japan). Opened in 1978 and 1988, it is the longest two-tiered bridge system (but not all of the spans that make up the bridge system are suspension bridges). * Sky Bridge 721 (Czech Republic). Opened in 2022, it is the longest suspension pedestrian bridge in the world (721 m).

Notes

References

:''Note: Some of the information posted on the following sites may differ from that above. As of 21 February 2006, the sites were out of date or inaccurate as noted in parenthesis'' * Denenberg, David
Bridgemeister.com
(an extensive inventory of more than 4,600 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, 24 May 1999 (out of date)

Archive.org copy of The Bridge over the Strait of Messina website (out of date and other errors)

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

Laboratory of Bridge Engineering (LBE), Helsinki University of Technology (includes bridges that have not yet been completed)

External links

*

at the Honshū—Shikoku Bridge Expressway Co. {{Bridge footer Suspension bridges, List of largest Suspension bridges, List of largest Bridges, suspension * Lists of construction records Bridges, suspension