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Jiangyin Suspension Bridge in China
The Jiangyin Suspension Bridge crosses the Yangtze River, connecting Jiangyin  and Jingjiang.
Built between 1995 and 1999 at a cost of 10 million yuan, this 3km long bridge has a 1,385m long main span.
It is the fifth largest suspension bridge in the world, and was China's largest until the Runyang Bridge was completed.
This bridge was so influential in promoting Jiangyin's economy that it won the gold Eugene C. Figg Jr award at the October 2002 International Bridge Conference.
Humber Bridge in Britain
The Humber Bridge runs over the River Humber, saving 100,000 cars a week an 80km  round trip when travelling from East Riding in Yorkshire to North Lincolnshire.
The 2,220m bridge has a 1,410m free span that was the world's longest from 1981 until 1998.
It is designed to  cope with winds of up to 129 km/h, and has enough wire in its suspension cables to run almost twice around the Earth. The bridge, costing US$250 million, took eight years to complete and was  opened on  July 17, 1981.
Akashi-Kaikyo Bridge in Japan
Akashi-Kaikyo Bridge stretches 3,911m across the Akashi Strait in Japan, connecting the mainland city of Kobe to Iwaya on Awaji Island. It is part of a 90km long highway system that links the islands of Honshu, Awaji and Shikoku.
The bridge consists of two 960m segments plus a central 1,991m section that holds the record as the world's biggest free span, the longest part without ground support.
When the bridge - proposed in 1955 - finally opened on April 5, 1998, the construction bill came to US$4.3  billion.
Great Belt Bridge in Denmark
This Great Belt Fixed Link is the largest engineering project in Danish history. It consists of a 6,790m suspension bridge, an 8km railway tunnel, and another 6,611m rail and road bridge.
The project cost  21.4 billion Danish krone (HK$32 billion). When it opened on  June 14, 1998, east and west Denmark were connected by road and rail for the first time.
However, the connection was curtailed for five hours on  March 3, 2005, when the 3,500-tonne freighter M/V Karen Danielsen crashed into the Western bridge, stopping all traffic.
Runyang Bridge in China
The Runyang Bridge is part of a 35.66km complex that crosses the Yangtze River in  Jiangsu  province.
It has a 1,490m section that qualifies it as China's longest and the world's third longest free span.
The project opened on  April 30, 2005. It took five years to complete and cost  5.8 billion yuan but was completed before schedule.
Build Your Vocab
When you're reading you don't always need to know every word to understand the sense of the passage. But do you remember new vocab when you come across it?
Build your word power by finding appropriate synonyms for the following words  in the text. Want an extra challenge? Try completing this exercise from memory first!
Suggested
cut
meets the criteria
linked
important
Answers
proposed
curtailed
qualifies
connected
influential
fab fact!
Hong Kong's 4,518m Tsing Ma Bridge cost HK$7.2 billion to construct. It has a 1,377m free span, making it the sixth largest in the world.
compare!
The world's longest bridge is the 38,422m long Lake Pontchartrain Causeway in southern Louisiana, US.



A bridge too far ...