Danyang–Kunshan Grand Bridge

The Danyang–Kunshan Grand Bridge in eastern China is a 164.8 km railway viaduct on the Beijing–Shanghai high-speed line. It opened in 2011 and carries trains over rice fields, rivers and lakes.

Most of the length is a raised viaduct on land. Lists of 'longest bridge' vary depending on whether long viaducts count.

Context

The bridge is a viaduct, meaning a long raised structure on many piers, built so that high-speed trains on the Beijing–Shanghai line could run on a straight, level track across the soft, flooded ground of the Yangtze delta. It crosses canals, rice paddies and a lake, and it avoids the need for many separate level crossings or embankments in wet soil.

The line opened in June 2011, and the railway is designed for speeds in the region of 300 kilometres per hour or more. Guinness World Records lists the structure as the longest bridge in the world at about 164.8 kilometres.

Whether it is 'the longest bridge' depends on definitions. Some lists compare only bridges over open water, and others count long elevated railways and highways as bridges. Several other Chinese viaducts, and one in Taiwan, are also well over 100 kilometres long, so the exact ranking of the runners-up varies by source. Because the figure counts the whole elevated railway, it is best read as the length of the viaduct, not of a single span.