China has unveiled the worlds longest sea bridge,
which stretches a massive 26.4 miles five miles further than the
distance between Dover and Calais and longer than a marathon. The
Qingdao Haiwan Bridge was completed on December 27, 2010 and is 26.4
miles long - the equivalent of 174 Tower Bridges, links the main urban
area of Qingdao city, East Chinas Shandong province, with Huangdao
district, straddling the Jiaozhou Bay sea areas. The road bridge, which
took four years and cost a cool 5.5 billion pounds to build, will be
open for use in the New Year and is almost three miles longer than the
previous record-holder, the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway in Louisiana.
That structure features two bridges
running side by side and is 23.87 miles (38.42km) long. The three-way
Qingdao Haiwan Bridge is a staggering 174 times longer than Londons
Tower Bridge, over the Thames River and shaves 19 miles off the drive
from Qingdao to Huangdao. Two separate groups of workers have been
building the different ends of the structure since 2006. With an overall
length of 42.58km, the route between Qingdao and Huangdao will be
shortened by 30km, cutting the travel time by about 20 minutes
