World’s Longest Suspension Bridge Spans

When you think of suspension bridges, the likes of the Golden Gate Bridge may pop into your head. However, this well-known suspension bridge doesn’t even make the top ten list of bridges with the longest spans. So, we decided to map over 100 of the suspension bridges from all around the world with the longest spans. Anyone can build an über long bridge, but what’s really impressive stems from bridges with the longest spans — or the length of solid bridge between two supporting towers. And, while most suspension bridges are pretty long, there’s always those that hold the records when it comes to their main span.

View World’s Longest Suspension Bridge Spans in a full screen map

Check out the world’s longest suspension bridge spans on the map above, or read on for details about the lengths, locations, and future record-breaking suspension bridges in the works.

The Suspense is Killing Us: the Longest Completed Suspension Bridge Spans

While all of the completed suspension bridges we mapped have spans that are either close to or way over 2,000 feet long, the following ten completed suspension bridges from around the world hold the record:

Rank Name Main Span (meters) Main Span (feet) Year Opened Location Country
1 Akashi Kaikyō Bridge 1,991 6,532 1998 Kobe Japan
2 Xihoumen Bridge 1,650 5,413 2009 Zhoushan China
3 Great Belt Bridge 1,624 5,328 1998 Korsør Denmark
4 Osman Gazi Bridge 1,550 5,090 2016 Dilovası Turkey
5 Yi Sun-sin Bridge 1,545 5,069 2012 Gwangyang South Korea
6 Runyang Bridge 1,490 4,888 2005 Yangzhou China
7 Dongting Lake Bridge Hangrui 1,480 4,856 2018 Yueyang China
8 Nanjing Fourth Yangtze Bridge 1,418 4,652 2012 Nanjing China
9 Humber Bridge 1,410 4,626 1981 Hessle United Kingdom
10 Yavuz Sultan Selim Bridge 1,408 4,619 2016 İstanbul Turkey

Note that of the top ten completed suspension bridges with the longest spans, four are located in China. Overall, of the 79 completed longest suspension bridge spans we mapped, 31 are located in China, or nearly 40%.

However, while China may have the most completed suspension bridges with long spans, the country is not home to the number one longest completed suspension bridge span. That honor belongs to Japan. The Akashi Kaikyō Bridge in Japan has the longest completed suspension bridge span. The bridge connects the city of Kobe to Awaji Island and even has lookout points at the very top if its two towers. This super long bridge’s span is nearly 1,000 feet longer than Xihoumen Bridge, the second longest suspension bridge span on our list.

Photo of the Akashi Kaikyō Bridge by Xiaojun Deng

The most recently built and completed suspension bridge to make the top ten longest span list is the Dongting Lake Bridge Hangrui in Yueyang, China. The bridge crosses Dongting Lake, and it opened in February of this year.

Photo of the Dongting Lake Bridge by Chlich

Under Construction: the Longest Bridge Spans Being Built

We didn’t want to leave out those bridges that are still under construction. You can order the map to show only these in-progress bridges by grouping by bridge status, but here are the top five longest under-construction spans:

  • Çanakkale 1915 Bridge — Turkey, 6,637 feet
  • Yangsigang Yangtse River Bridge — China, 5,577 feet
  • Second Humen Bridge East — China, 5,538 feet
  • Lingding Bridge — China, 5,466 feet
  • Jin’an Bridge — China, 4,547 feet

Disappointedly for the Akashi Kaikyō Bridge in Japan, the Çanakkale 1915 Bridge, which is set to open in 2022 in Turkey, will surpass the longest completed suspension bridge span in the world. At 2,023 meters or 6,637 feet, the Çanakkale 1915 Bridge’s main span will be longer than Japan’s Akashi Kaikyō Bridge’s by a little over one hundred feet.

China has 24 bridges currently under construction which range from the 5,577 feet of the Yangsigang Yangtse River Bridge to 1,969 feet. Put into perspective, there are only 29 bridges under construction on our list, and China makes up nearly 83% of them.

And, when you combine the longest existing suspension bridge spans and longest bridge spans under construction, 55 of them are located in China. The next most? Just 13 in the United States. Those 13 longest suspension bridge spans in the U.S. are all existing bridges, which means the U.S. currently has no bridges under construction that would make the list of longest bridge spans.

TBD: Longest Bridge Spans in the Planning Stages

While the suspension bridges that don’t technically exist yet can’t be compared to those that have been standing for a while or those being built, we still thought we’d look to the future to see what it has in store. The following are all the suspension bridges that are planned for the future and are said to have pretty huge spans:

  • Gibraltar Bridge, Spain to Morocco
  • HAFAST, Sulafjorden, Norway
  • Sognebrua, Sognefjorden, Norway
  • Strait of Messina Bridge, Sicily to mainland Italy
  • Sunda Strait Bridge, Java to Sumatra, Indonesia
  • Malacca Strait Bridge, Peninsular Malaysia, Malaysia to Sumatra, Indonesia
  • Storfjord Bridge, Storfjorden, Norway
  • Edvard Grieg Bridge, Halsafjord, Norway
  • Mao Zedong Bridge, Qiongzhou Strait, China
  • Chacao Channel Bridge, Chiloé to mainland Chile

Of the ten bridges in the works, only the Chacao Channel Bridge in Chile will fail to replace one of the top ten completed bridges as new holders of the longest spans title. Still, the Chacao Channel Bridge is no small feat, hitting 1,100 meters, or 3,600 feet, although it is definitely the smallest of the ten future bridges.

As for the rest of these TBD bridges, if they hold up to their planned span, every single one will bump all of the completed bridges off the longest bridge spans list and all of the under-construction bridges other than the Çanakkale 1915 Bridge. Turkey’s pride and joy would be bumped down and ranked at #8.

The HAFAST bridge is still under planning in Norway, but it has the biggest explicitly stated span of 4,000 meters or 13,000 feet. The Sognebrua bridge, also in Norway will hopefully be 3,700 meters or 12,100 feet. The Norwegians are really trying to out-rank the rest of the world when it comes to suspension bridges. However, it’s possible the Gibraltar Bridge, which would connect Europe to Africa and is only stated to be “very long” may take the cake for the future suspension bridge with the longest span.

The Malacca Strait Bridge, Storfjord Bridge, and Edvard Grieg Bridge in Indonesia, Norway, and once again Norway, respectively are all proposed or planned to be 2,000 meters or longer. The Malacca Strait Bridge will be 2,600 meters long or a whopping 8,500 feet. The Storfjord Bridge will be 2,300 meters in length (7,500 feet), and the Edvard Grieg Bridge will be just slightly smaller at 2,000 meters or 6,600 feet long.

As we’ve seen, China really doesn’t need any more bridges since the country already monopolizes the suspension bridge game. So it’s not really much of a surprise that China only has one super long bridge in the planning stages. That one bridge China is planning is the Mao Zedong Bridge. It would cross the 14-mile Qiongzhou Strait, and consist of ten towers. If successful, it would be one of the longest suspension bridges ever created, although the spans between the towers aren’t as long at 2,000 meters or 6,600 feet. The bridge is in the very beginning stages of being worked on.

So, in the case of the world’s longest suspension bridge spans, the future will beat out the past.

Some future planned bridges aren’t as lucky as the above bridges being planned. In fact, two bridges that were in the works were canceled. Plans for the Strait of Messina Bridge from Sicily to Italy and the Suna Strait Bridge in Indonesia have been halted. The Strait of Messina Bridge was set to be a whopping 3,300 meters or 10,800 feet but was canceled back in 2006 due to a controversy over how much it cost to build. In 2008, however, it was put on the queue again but was once again canceled in 2013. The Sunda Strait Bridge in Indonesia would have been around 3,000 meters or 9,800 feet had it not been canceled.


All in all, the bridge spans of the past, present, and future are pretty impressive length-wise. And so are buildings. You can check out the world’s tallest buildings on a map here to see if there are any near you.

Apartment Hunt Visually with a Custom Map

Moving on is never easy, especially when that moving on involves packing up everything you’ve ever owned and settling down elsewhere. Apartment hunting may not be the most stressful thing you’ll ever do, but it’s definitely up there. Not only will you have to live with your decision for the duration of your lease, your apartment is where you’ll be spending the majority of your time, even if it is just sleeping. Whether you graduated, got a job cross-country, or just needed a change of pace, making an apartment hunting map with BatchGeo can make the best of this process, and make your moving experience much less daunting.

View N.Y.C. Apartment Hunting in a full screen map

Your new digs need more than just certain amenities. They also need to be close to the places you frequent the most. Sure, it can be great when that apartment in your price range has a washer and dryer in unit, but if it’s a 45-minute drive to work or 30 minutes to the only grocery store that carries those brownies you like, you might start regretting your decision.

We’re here to make sure that never happens. Learning how to make a map of your apartment options and the nearby conveniences you need can save you a lot of time, money, and regrets three months after the move when you’re spending more time commuting than in your own apartment.

Create an Apartment Options Spreadsheet — With Some Important Additions

The first step towards creating your apartment options spreadsheet is to identify your apartment’s distance needs. For instance, do you need your apartment to be within a 15-minute walk to work because you get grumpy in the mornings with a long commute in the car? Is there a specific location, such as your favorite grocery store that would be convenient to have nearby? What about that little coffee shop you go to on your days off? Start out by identifying these distance needs, and then input your two or three most frequented places into an Excel or Google spreadsheet.

When putting your two or three most frequented locations in your spreadsheet, be sure to include columns for the name of the place, the address, and the type of place it is. The type will be useful when sorting your map later. Your spreadsheet should look something like this:

Add Your Apartment Options to Your Spreadsheet

After you’ve added in all of your important locations to your spreadsheet, you can start adding in your apartment options. Here is where you can include details about the apartment itself, including rent price, how many bedrooms it has, or if it’s a studio, and whether or not pets are allowed.

Be sure to assign a type to your apartments just like you did with your important locations. Something like “Apartment Option” will allow you to easily sort out your apartment options from your frequently attended locations later on in the map. When you’ve successfully added in all of the apartments you’re considering, your spreadsheet will look something like this:

Now, just simply copy and paste your data into BatchGeo.

Map It & Group By Type

Once you’ve copied and pasted your apartment data into BatchGeo, click on Map Now to easily map your data. From there, be sure to group your data by “Type.”

This way, you can easily sort your data once your map is complete. Next, just click on Make Map to map your data. Your map will look something like this:

View N.Y.C. Apartment Hunting in a full screen map

Visually, you can see the distances between your apartment options in one color, and your most frequented places in the other colors. We added a park and a gym for good measure.

Location, Location, Location: How to Measure Distance

What’s more, though is that you can do more than just eyeball how close your favorite apartment option is to your work. With BatchGeo, you can actually calculate distances between two addresses or points.

In order to do so, when you’re mapping your data, simply:

Click Validate and Set Options and click on Advanced Options. Then, check the option to calculate distance from the first address and select the units. We picked miles. Click Make Map. Our first address was work, and so BatchGeo will automatically calculate just how far every other item on the spreadsheet is from our work. When your spreadsheet is comprised of ten different apartment possibilities, this can be incredibly useful to get a sense of just how far you’ll be walking or driving every weekday.

More Measurement Options

There is one more way BatchGeo can help to make your moving process go as smooth as possible, and it’s related to, you guessed it, location once again. In the event that you don’t want to only know the distance of everything on your map to your work, BatchGeo also gives you the opportunity to measure on the fly. Simply click on the little ruler in the top left corner of your map:

And select the measuring tool. From here, you can draw a line to each point and BatchGeo will let you know how far they are apart. To change the unit of measurement, click the scale on the bottom right of your map. This feature is only available in BatchGeo’s Advanced Mode, which can add even more insights to your map. Advanced Mode is only available if you are a BatchGeo Pro member.


Before you make your apartment decision based on how much you just want this to be over with, take five minutes to make apartment hunting easier and map it out! And, if you’re done with living in apartments and are in the market to buy a home, check out how to make an open house map.

Changes to BatchGeo’s Free Maps

Over 250,000 active users have created more than 10 million BatchGeo maps! We’re delighted to help so many people visualize their location data.

As you might imagine, providing maps at that scale is expensive. For 10 years, we’ve supported our service with the fast and flexible BatchGeo Pro. Our customers, heavy map users who value additional speed and features, have enabled us to continue to offer a generous free plan.

Recently Google caused some concerns when it announced new pricing for its map service, which BatchGeo is built upon. Previously, we’ve used the free version of Google Maps for our own free maps. Due to the changes, we need to find a new approach for the most popular free maps.

We need to make sure we can cover the additional costs. Currently we are proactively reaching out to free users with extremely high usage to upgrade to a paid plan. We hope the value we’ve provided over the years is worth a small subscription fee.

At the same time, the team is working on a way to view your usage, so you know whether you’ll need to upgrade. At this point, action is only required if you’ve heard from us.

Questions about BatchGeo Pricing

Is BatchGeo still free?

Yes, you can create basic maps on BatchGeo for no charge. Due to changes in Google’s pricing, we’ve had to limit users with significant usage of our free maps.

What happens if I don’t subscribe to BatchGeo?

If you received an email from us, your usage may become limited without subscribing to BatchGeo. We may restrict new maps and your current maps may not be viewable.

You can find out more about BatchGeo Pro here.

If you have questions not answered above, email us and we’ll get back to you.