The longest bridge in the world, spanning 164.8 km

The Danyang-Kunshan Bridge in China is a record-breaking super structure, holding both the titles of longest bridge and second longest bridge in the world.

The bridge stretches 164.8 km, crossing rivers, lakes, swamps and cities, connecting Shanghai and Nanjing.

The Danyang-Kunshan Bridge runs parallel to the Yangtze River from its mouth in Shanghai. The bridge has an average height of 100m, with some areas of the bridge being 150m above the water because it was designed to allow ships to pass underneath.

This is both a viaduct and a cable-stayed bridge in each section due to the different lengths and terrain differences below the bridge.

The Danyang-Kunshan Bridge is so long that a section of the bridge called the Langfang-Qingxian Viaduct is 114 km long, considered the second longest bridge in the world.

The world's longest bridge was completed in 2011, just four years after construction began. The bridge shortens the rail journey from Ningbo to Jiaxing from 4.5 hours to two hours.

The bridge cost about $8.5 billion to build, or $1 million per square kilometer. The bridge was built from several hundred thousand tons of steel and supported by 11,500 concrete pillars. The section of the train crossing Yangcheng Lake in Suzhou alone used 2,000 pillars.

In addition, the bridge is designed to withstand a 300,000-ton head-on collision from a naval vessel and a series of natural disasters affecting the area such as earthquakes and storms. The bridge has an estimated lifespan of more than 100 years.