THE WORLD’S LONGEST BRIDGES
Discover the incredible feats of engineering closing some of the biggest land gaps
WORDS AILSA HARVEY
DID YOU KNOW?
At 391 metres, Hartland Bridge in Canada is the longest covered bridge, with a roof to stop the wood rotting
Humans have constructed bridges for thousands of years, helping establish trade routes across rivers and deep valleys to keep communities connected. Today’s modern bridges may be bigger and longer, using advanced building techniques and materials that weren’t available to ancient engineers, but they’re still constructed to make isolated islands and tricky terrain more accessible.
Building record-breaking bridges is only possible with high-strength materials such as advanced steel alloys – low-alloy steel with a high strengthto-weight ratio and better corrosion resistance. Choosing this steel over alternatives allows for longer structures to be built with lower weight stress. And
the corrosion resistance helps give a bridge longevity. Computer structural simulations that take into account variables such as the specific location, bridge length, shape and type of materials can be used to determine whether a mammoth bridge project is actually viable before builders invest more time and money into the project.