When you're traveling across water, if you ain't on a boat, you're on 'bridge' my friend. No two ways about it.

But other than that, there's no three ways about it.

Oh, and you're right - the Millau Viaduct is the cat's ass.

The Zakim bridge is only a few miles from my home.
It would look a lot nicer if the old, ugly Tobin Bridge wasn't still next to it.

That's a very cool posting, Doc.

Although, if you want to get technical about things, I think the longest bridge in history was Bill Clinton's "Bridge to the 21st Century."

Hell, that thing could travel in time, dude.

Cheers,
Dave at Garfield Ridge

You know, you could build a 100 mile pier with pilings every 10 feet. You could call it a bridge, but it wouldn't be very exciting. Would it? Hanging something over thin air for a mile or two is not easy.

BTW, most of the newer futuristic looking bridges have been designed by or being copied from Santiago Calatrava. Besides, bridges, he designs museums ( and not those ugly titanium things), train stations, sports stadia, opera houses and now he is getting into skyscrapers. This November the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York is having an exhibit of his work. A rarity for a living architect.

Those are all way too static.

Motion man. No bridge discussion is complete without this:
http://www.ketchum.org/bridgecollapse.html

Ignore that 'collapse' part.

I took the ferry many times between Messina and Reggio Calabria in Italy. If they build a bridge, it will take away some of the charm.
I'd be interested in seeing how much money is "lost" during the building of the bridge. Between 'Ndrangheta of Calabria and La Cosa Nostra, there won't be much left to actually spend on steel.

I think i'm in love with you, Dr. Reo for this post. The Zakim bridge looks incredible at night all lit up. Driving on it is even more impressive than just looking at it. But ye,s the Tobin Bridge isn't doing it any favors by being next to it.

I'm a big fan of the sunshine skyway in Tampa

http://www.ronsaari.com/stockImages/florida/SunshineSkyway1M.php

http://www.bernd-nebel.de/bruecken/1_einfuehrung/start/start.html (scroll about 1/2 down)

The light at sunset can be spectacular.

I guess if they can build the Chunnel between France and the UK this is OK too. BTW, I think you forget to mention a huge mother suspension bridge in Japan, which I think is the current world record holder for suspension bridges.

The Royal Gorge Bridge in Colorado certainly has a lot of cool points, the biggest being the thousand foot drop to the floor of the canyon from the wooden deck of the bridge.

In the end, it is all a question of metrics.

The Golden Gate leads of course in suicide jumps per vehicle crossed, with style points awarded for wind, surf and sharks. We cannot dispute that the bridges of Key West are longer, but a header off a 20 foot rise is not at all the same thing.

Michigan in turn, leads in Yugo flight, given by the formula 3(Yugo)/windage. As is suggested in the post, it matters little to airborn Yugoists, if flight began before, during, or after the suspention pier.

Very cool post. Who is there among us who doesn't love a cool bridge?

The one from Denmark to Sweden is a real piece of work too.

Here's an overview of bridges by CATEGORY.

If LENGTH mattered...

I still love the bridge over the New River Gorge. It was, until recently, the longest single-arch bridge in the world. A truck commercial, where they bungee-dropped a trick from the bridge, was filmed there. It flies over a beautiful river. The sight from the bridge on a clear day in the fall is breathtaking.

As a kid, we use to drive over it to get to my Grandma's house and it's one of the enduring memories from my childhood.

Dr.Symes:

Ah, the Mighty Mac, a wonder it is, especialy when you consider how unpopulated the area it is in actually is. The state had a problem geting financing for it because of that fact. Turned out that wasn't a problem as the bridge paid itself off ahead of time and the fairs are actuallylower now than when it opened (in actual dollar amount).

Then there is the Ambassador (international suspension bridge - between Detroit, Mich. and Windsor, Ont.).

So, with the "Reo", you wouldn't happen to be from Lansing, would you? Amazin' the number of Michiganders you find on these websites.

P.S. "Say ya to da U.P., eh?"

The "bridge" over Lake Ponchartrain is about 24 miles long. It's just a highway on piers over water. Big deal.

Now, build a highway with the piers as far apart as possible. The farther they are apart, the more difficult the highway is to build. The point is that just building a highway on pier after pier after pier is not impressive, but building a highway over piers that are more than a mile apart is, at least to me, VERY impressive.

Your mileage may vary, but I'm more impressed by a long span than I am by a lot of short spans.

The Millau Viaduct is certainly an impressive engineering achievement, but I am thinking -- and I could be wrong on this -- biggest white elephant. The two towns it connects are Béziers and Clermont-Ferrand. Béziers has a population of 70,000 making it slightly larger than Framingham, MA. Clermont-Ferrand has 140,000 making it one quarter the size of Boston, the United States' 20th largest city. It's meant to relieve traffic in Millau, population 22,000, about the population of the Starrett City housing project in Brooklyn. They essentially connected Nowheresville to Utopia to prevent traffic jams in East Bum Fuck with that thing. It cuts 100km off the drive if they had built something through the valley, so you can save about an hour racing to Clermont-Ferrand to be on time for the cheese festival. Also, the bridge seems to span about 200 ft of actual water and none of the pictures show any cars ever on it. Compare these stats to the George Washington Bridge, which connects an area with 8,000,000 people with another 3,000,000 over a mighty river. 300,000 cars a day pass over the GW, making it the busiest in the world. Yes, that's right. Far more vehicles pass over the GW in a single day that there are people living in those 3 French towns. The GW is a fantastic bridge right where a bridge should be.

Maybe I'm just picking on the French. But what's so wrong with that?

Good Lord, civil engineering geeks have taken control of the site...

What's next? Threads on concrete slumpage?

I grew up in the SF Bay Area so naturally my fave is the Golden Gate Bridge.

Driving south on 101 in Marin County on a sunny day, you go into a longish tunnel and when you come out the other side, on the left you see the north tower of the GGB rising in all it's glory against a crystal blue sky. There's nothing like that view in all the world.

Like to see that Zakim Bridge, tbough.

Dogstar, I think everyone covered that subject in the New Orleans levee discussions a few weeks back.

Oh, and I've discovered a new favorite. Man, is that bridge beautiful.

Cheers,
Dave at Garfield Ridge

The "bridge" over Lake Ponchartrain is about 24 miles long. It's just a highway on piers over water. Big deal.

Dammit! As if you put down 6 miles a day before you've read the morning paper. That's exactly the bridgism I'm talkin bout - that because it's not purebred with your fancy lineage, it's gotta ride at the back of the bus. Screw that.

Sure, suspension is fancy and all, but raving bout length in that category is beside the point, just a way for suspension-heads to give themselves awards.

Mikey: No, not a Lansing guy, but I've crossed the Mighty Mac a few times. Also the Ambassador. Fine bridges.

Dave: You're stealing my best ones. Not to spoil the surprise but The Clifton is my favorite bridge. Gonna be my grand winner in a couple weeks. Something so right about it's proportion and placement, the arc of its cables, that there must be beautiful math hidden in it. Gorgeous.

The Big Mac was exceeded in length in the US between piers by the Verrazano-Narrows in NYC (though from anchorage to anchorage it was longer), which in turn was exceeded by a suspension bridges in Japan.

Or, if you like, you could go by number of lanes of traffic - Sydney's harbor bridge or the GWB in NYC have that beat (and Sydney's bridge is a record setter for an arch bridge). And the GWB beats all others for traffic.

Yeah, so if you guys are all that and then some, how come nobody's mentioned the bridge over the River Kwai?

Hell, that was so famous, they made an f'ing movie about it.

Buncha elitist pansies...

"Bridges of the Future"

Puh-leeze! The bridges of the future won't involve concrete and steel.

Anti-gravitational FLYING CARS!!

That's the FUTURE!!

Coming Soon.

I'll be impressed when I can drive my SUV from Boston to Honolulu. Of course they'll have to be several gas stations on such a bridge and possibly hotels and supermarkets.

After Bush cranks up his evil-weather-making-machine to shake off California with a big earthquake, we can build two bridges. One bridge from Nevada to California, and another from California to Hawaii.

Note to self: Buy property in Nevada, the next "Gold Coast."

Once had an uncle who claimed to be an expert on bridgework.

Later, found out he was a dentist.

Poor fucker. Obviously delusional.

Did someone mention bridge jokes?

The Polish were upset because of their bad reputation. A group of them got together and approached a conference of Americans, Germans, and Japanese and asked for help on this matter. An American replied, "You must do something so the world will respect you. The Japanese are known for their technology and the Germans are known for their resourcefulness. We Americans have had respect since we helped win the World War against the other two. See, you need to do something world-famous." A German added," Yes, he's right. Why don't you find a place in this world in need of a bridge that no one has dared build, build it, come back to us, and we will help publicize it."

With that, the Polish set off to build their bridge. They designed it and worked 6 months and finally completed it. They then went back to report it to the group. The bridge was a beautiful bridge but it had one flaw: it was erected in the middle of the Sahara Desert. An American said, "No, no. See, that is why you have your reputation. There is no need for a bridge in the middle of the desert. Now go and dismantle it, and find a more strategic spot to erect it."

The Polish returned to the conference in two weeks. One of the Japanese said, "Two weeks! It only took you two weeks to dismantle that bridge and build a new one??? That is amazing!!" To which a Polish man replied, "Well, not exactly. When we returned to the bridge we couldn't dismantle it because there were all these Italians fishing off it."

Dogstar: "Otisburg".

Dr. Symes: Hello, and welcome to the Great Lakes State!

It isn't what cities anchor either end (Come on,look at Mackinaw City and St. Ignace) but what can now be reached without a bother.

BTW, The Badger still sails between Michigan and Wisconsion. (A ferry and the last coal fired ship on the Great Lakes. History waits to carry you away!)

Darn it! I would love to go off on Fort Michilimackinac, and Fort Mackinac, and Chief Pontiac's uprising, and the War of 1812, and the St. Mary's Falls Ship Canal (Soo Locks), and its relation to the Panama Canal, and, and,...

Detroit looks like 400 miles of bad highway, but it wasn't always so, not when my great-grandpa was Superintendent of Schools, and the big boom was on, taking a city of 300,000 in 1900 to a city of almost 2,000,000 in 1950.
Boomtown and Bust. And a mortal shame.
I'm gonna go off and mope for a bit.

Michigan, my Michigan, how I love you...

Oregon:

And you come out of the hills of the Lower Penninsula (LP) and you launch towards the ivory towers of the mighty mac on your way across the Straits of Mackinac. To your left you see the dark blue waters of Lake Michigan roll,and to your left you see the dark blue waters of Lake Huron, and the green blobs of Mackinac Island and Bois Blanc Island...

Sweet Mother Michigan,
Father Superior,
Roll down from Mackinac,
And Sault Ste. Marie.
Blue Water Huron roll,
Into Lake Erie -o
Fall down Ontario,
and flow out to sea...

I nominate the Linn Cove Viaduct as one of the world's best. It may not be the most visually stunning in its own right, but the care that was taken to not disturb the natural beauty of the area might be the most outstanding use of technology for bridge construction.

Mikey:

I'd like to see that exactly as you described.

I've got an old friend who is a UPer. Maybe I orta pay him a visit...

Oregon: Do!

And my love for the great freshwater seas will always be there, no matter what.

"There's a legend that lives from the Chippewa on down,
About the great lake they called Gitchee Gummee..."

Doc,

You truly entertain me. I love it when someone points out just how hard designing and constructing these modern marvels are. As if it could be done by waking up in the morning and drinking the right coffee.

And you're a very funny guy.

You rock, Doc.

Subsunk

Mikey
Don't forget the Blue Water Bridge connecting Port Huron to Sarnia. A really good book is -The History of Detoit. Its by Hawkins Ferry and it shows Detroit in all of its (long ago) splendor.

I remember the Mackinac Bridge. I grew up in Marquette, and it was odd to drive from a city of about 23,000 (the largest in the UP) through increasingly remote areas, and then suddenly hit an interstate highway leading to a vast engineering marvel.

As a side note, there is a stretch of M-28 east of Munising that is straight as an arrow for about thirty miles. The whole area is pine scrub, so the engineers just mapped out a straight line from the point the hills ended to the junction they were trying to make.

Caspera, I hadn't a clue about the Millau being in the middle of nowhere, but since Clermont-Ferrand is Michelin's headquarters, I think we may have an idea of why it was built.

Jayne, when ever I cross to Canada I take the Blue Water Bridge(s). A heck of lot more convenient than trying to fight across the Ambassador and then all the truck traffic on the 401.