The Danyang-Kunshan Grand Bridge in China is the longest bridge on Earth. It carries high-speed trains for 102.4 miles (164.8 kilometers).
It opened in 2011 as part of the Beijing-Shanghai High-Speed Railway.
The tracks run over rice paddies, rivers, canals, and cities. One stretch also crosses Yangcheng Lake.
This is not one arch over a river. It is a viaduct, a bridge on a long row of supports, made of concrete and steel so the line stays straight.
10,000 workers built it in four years. The cost was $8.5 billion.
Guinness World Records lists it as the longest bridge.
There is a second record on the same railway line.
The Langfang-Qingxian viaduct runs 70.8 miles (114 kilometers). It is the second-longest bridge in the world.
The bridge can withstand typhoons, magnitude 8 earthquakes, and impacts from naval vessels weighing up to 330,000 US tons (300,000 metric tonnes). Ships pass between the supports. Trains overhead do not stop for them.
At 186 mph (300 km/h), that distance takes about 33 minutes. Every minute of it is spent on the bridge.
The second record hides alongside the first.
The full route runs longer still.
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