There's a new longest suspension bridge | Hacker News Reader

There's a new longest suspension bridge

jalopnik.com

100 pointsperihelions75 comments

It's the suspension bridge with the longest central span, at 1.25 miles (2.86 miles long in total).

The world's longest bridge which is a suspension bridge remains the Mackinac Bridge, at just shy of 5 miles long in total (central span of less than 3/4 mile).

Kinda. The Mackinac Bridge is the longest bridge in the world which contains a suspension component, but the majority of the bridge is not actually a suspension bridge. Only 1/3 of the Mackinac bridge is suspension (2,625m of 8,038m total length).

The longest (entirely) suspension bridge in the world is the Kurushima Kaikyō Bridge in Japan, with a suspension length of 4,015m. But it in turn is comprised of four towers, so it is effectively two suspension bridges strung together, which is why usually length of the central span is the benchmark for "longest suspension bridge in the world" and therefore why the 1915 Çanakkale Bridge is claiming the title.

> The longest (entirely) suspension bridge in the world is the Kurushima Kaikyō Bridge in Japan, with a suspension length of 4,015m

4,015m is 2.5 miles. The parent comment to you said that the 1915 Çanakkale bridge is 2.86 miles long in total. If those numbers are correct, the 1915 Çanakkale bridge would appear to be the longest suspension bridge by all measures, not just central span. I don't think it has anything to do with number of towers.

The 1915 Çanakkale Bridge is not an entirely suspension bridge either. The suspension part is in total 3,563m long, with the approach viaducts adding an additional 1,045m, for a total length of 4,608m (2.86mi).

This image[1] can help give you an idea of the additional length that is added by the approach without actually being part of the suspension bridge.

[1] https://cdni0.trtworld.com/w480/h270/q75/127810_turcanakkale...

Central span length is definitely more interesting than overall length. Technically not a single bridge, but the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel is over 17 miles long.

I find suspension bridges to be the most beautiful bridges in the world. There is something so timeless about them (they're literally maintainable almost indefinitely). Many modern bridges are now built as cable-stayed bridges because they're cheaper, but they have a limited lifespan and the concrete isn't nearly as attractive are the the intricate steel patterns found in suspension bridges.

Of the three bridges over the Firth of Forth I'd say that the suspension bridge is by far the least attractive:

https://www.theforthbridges.org/

Also I believe the suspension bridge was replaced for most road traffic precisely because it is difficult to maintain the main suspension cables:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forth_Road_Bridge#Structural_i...

Interestingly enough, both this new bridge and the previous record holder (Japan's Akashi Kaikyo) are in earthquake zones.

The Akashi Kaikyo Bridge had its trial by fire during construction, when the Kobe Earthquake hit, and it passed with flying colors. Let's hope this bridge and Turkey's other megaprojects like the Marmaray tunnel under the Bosphorus in Istanbul also do so when the inevitable Big One hits.

Suspension bridges are well suited for use in earthquake zones.

Other styles like arch, truss and cantilever bridges are very much unsuitable.

Marmaray is constructed with cooperation of Japanese, and one of the older suspension bridges of Istanbul also designed by Japanese IIRC, hence I don't think they omitted the earthquake factor during the designs.

Also, yes suspension bridges are well suited for earthquakes.

Aren't suspension bridges inherently well suited to earthquake zones?

AIUI the main threats for suspension bridges are wind loads/catastrophic resonance and corrosion.

That's a long way from the bridges Xerxes had built so he could invade Greece.

https://www.uh.edu/engines/epi2310.htm

When they failed, the consequences were a bit bleak for the builders.

EDIT: better link

https://www.cowi.com/about/news-and-press/the-worlds-longest...

https://www.cowi.com/about/our-story

Cables by South Korean company PEC:

http://pec.kr/en/

Engineering reviews by British professional services company Arup:

https://www.arup.com/expertise/services/infrastructure/bridg...

Structural engineering by Aas-Jakobsen:

https://www.aas-jakobsen.com/about-us/the-aas-jakobsen-group...

Next time I hear somebody near, calling themselves a Software Engineer, I will hit them in the head with the latest edition of "Bridge Engineering Handbook", the "Substructure Design" volume...It's the heaviest.

Only 5 years is insane. It took 4 to build the Golden Gate Bridge, and this one is almost 3 times longer.

I think Golden Gate Bridge in 4 years is more impressive given that it was nearly 90 years ago. We didn't even have computers back then.

However, we could compare it to the Bay Bridge's Eastern span replacement, which took 11 years.

Are you in the US? It’s only in the US where construction has gotten slower over the decades. Everywhere else it’s gotten faster.

> It’s only in the US where construction has gotten slower over the decades. Everywhere else it’s gotten faster.

Germany would like a word with you. Most of Western Europe for that matter.

Are you sure that you aren’t just talking about either of: BER, Stuttgart 21 or Elbphilharmonie?

I recently tried to remember more projects that were terribly late and over budget and actually had difficulties finding any.

U5 in Berlin came in so late that connecting the part they managed to finish became a whole second project.

In Koln a tunnel for the Stadtbahn caused a building to collapse and has delayed the full operation of the tunnel.

Actually the story is even more absurd: the "part they managed to finish" was originally built together with a car and long-distance rail tunnel in the late nineties. Then they were forced to finish it and operate it for a few years as a completely senseless 3-station line not connected to the rest of the network, because otherwise Berlin would have had to pay back the federal subsidies they received for building the original tunnel.

And they completely abandoned the extension further west for which the stations Turmstraße and Jungfernheide were prepared for - it’s now replaced by a Tram line that will arrive there no earlier than 2028

Should those overruns not count when it comes to determining if large infrastructure projects have gotten slower or faster?

Sure should they - but once not once per person thinking about the same thing. I think a huge problem is availability bias - these projects are/were reported on often because of the delays. The projects that work just fine get a whole lot less of attention.

How many large airports have been built in Germany in the last few decades? Sure one example isn't much but if that's one of the only examples...

Does anyone know why it connects Sütlüce to Lapseke rather than Kilitbahir to Çanakkale further southwest along the Dardanelles? The gap looks about one third as wide there.

Perhaps most of the traffic will be coming from the northeast on the Europe side and the east on the Asia side, so Kilitbahir-Çanakkale would add an hour of driving for them? But if that's true, why didn't they built it at Gelibolu-Çardak, which naively looks like a similarly wide gap but would save half an hour?

More than 50000 people died there in one of the fiercest fights of WWI and many of those people was buried there without a grave. So those lands are treated as graveyards of martyrs, and therefore have historical and cultural importance.

Turkish people would not accept building the bridge and the roads there even if it was cheaper.

You mean the Martyrs' Memorial in Çardak? I guess. It still has a big highway going through the town (which is what this bridge connects to regardless), and I would think a suspension bridge would look very nice and respectful in the background of this view:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%87anakkale_Martyrs%27_Memo...

Not a domain expert but the depth of the water / depth of bedrock is going to be factor

Judging from Google Maps satellite view (which shows it without the bridge) it looks like there were conveniently-placed islands where they built it...

Maybe I'm sounding too negative, but the Turkish lira is in freefall. Maybe with less printed money taken away purchasing power from the holders of the currency (mainly poor people who don't invest their money) to create ,,pride'' projects, people would feel more pride when going into the stores.

There's nothing "pride" project about this, it actually shortens the transportation time by lorry between the industrial heartlands of Bursa and Izmir and the EU. My brother, who's a lorry driver (we're from Romania), used to go to both Izmir and Bursa quite a lot, and often times he would text me "I'm on the ferry at Çanakkale". I guess that won't be the case anymore with this new bridge.

While we're on it (and because my brother has just had a delivery to Casablanca), a bridge (or even a tunnel?) that would connect Southern Spain to Northern Morocco would be entirely something else, it would better integrate Morocco's economy into the EU (and vice-versa) while strengthening the ties between Europe and Africa. Not sure though how much a project like that would cost, or if it's even possible.

I wouldn't say it is impossible, but my understanding is that it is decidedly non-trivial due to geography and geology: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strait_of_Gibraltar_crossing

> a bridge (or even a tunnel?) that would connect Southern Spain to Northern Morocco would be entirely something else

Maybe they could build something like the Eurotunnel that connects UK with France.

Is there a ferry service between Spain and Morocco?

Yeap, there's one at Algeciras that I know of, maybe there are others, too, honestly too lazy to search for it right now.

Unfortunately, the lack of natural resources plays the biggest role in turkey's weakness against inflation. Once people are poor enough, turkey gets outside investment, enjoys luxury for a decade and the cycle starts over once cash is gone.

Interesting that Google Maps and OSM already have this as a road. Apple Maps doesn't as of right now.

But not in the satellite view. Bing shows more of the construction.

Which also means the Great Belt Bridge is no longer the longest suspension bridge outside of Asia either.[1]

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Belt_Fixed_Link

Well, technically it's still the longest suspension bridge fully outside Asia.

Both bridges play the interesting role of spanning international waters wholly inside NATO countries. Russian naval vessels routinely pass under the Great Belt Bridge, and (I certainly assume) under the Istanbul one as well.

The Danube River is also "international waters" in the same way [0] - there are treaties permitting freedom of navigation on it. There must be hundreds of bridges over it, mostly wholly inside NATO countries.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_waters

I am always amazed by such megaprojects. Imagine how much planning and coordination needs to happen. So many different parts manufactured in different places need to come together at the right time and lifted up by a custom designed crane.

And a lot of opportunities for corruption of any kind.

Well at least I they got it finished.

Some projects esp. in Africa get fully financed but never even start.

Yes, it's amazing when they actually succeed in delivering something at the end.

There is almost always some substantial fraction of the budget that went to corruption. (For nuke plants in the US, it is generally 2/3 or more of the total spend, often 3/2 of the original budget.) Nobody actually involved wants the project ever to deliver, because right then the money stops flowing; or, anyway, not until the kids graduate college or something.

So it is always amazing when these projects deliver.

Is there anything particularly challenging about scaling the length of a suspension span, or do they just run the numbers?

Very exciting news for the Turkish people! This is certainly going to have a huge positive impact on their economy

A fine bridge, but can someone explain how they will be able to remove the building cranes from the top of the pillars?

Liebherr has a plan. See https://youtu.be/ys_310mlbcI

I don’t see anything in that video about removing the cranes after construction.

I suppose they could just leave the cranes, or remove them with a helicopter.

Or tip them off. Raising a winch up, they could use it to lower the crane to a waiting boat.

They got there by helicopter, so removal will also be done by helicopter.

I see that I forgot to include the word likely. Either way, what I said is not correct. The crane just moved upwards as more and more blocks are installed and wasn't flown in by helicopter to the top. I don't really know what I was thinking there.

https://www.1915canakkale.com/en-us/news/1915canakkale-bridg...

They just keep going until the crane wraps around by integer overflow.

knowing if it was unsigned or things might get really weird on the wrap around

Very cool. But looking at it in perspective, What keeps it from typing over. Sideways?

Like an iceberg, what you see above water is not the whole thing.

A road bridge?? Ugh

Turkey already has a dedicated rail crossing across the Bosphorus, namely Marmaray in Istanbul: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marmaray

Surprised to see Turkey unveiling this.

Everything I read about Turkey in the west is that it's a failing country run by a despot.

We might not be doing great on some fronts, but we can do engineering. It's not always at forefront, but we can create high quality or groundbreaking stuff too.

However our location on this pale blue dot makes a lot of things complicated. The land is big, and connected to very different cultures and it makes everything much more harder to balance when you add the historical events into it.

My impression is that there's something of a brain drain as well - lots of excellent Turkish researchers ending up in the West (similar with Iran).

Erdogan has turned into a despot, but that's a fact, not a prejudice.

According to its Wikipedia page, this bridge has been designed by a Danish firm and was built by a consortium of Korean and Turkish firms.

Let's all give up the whole notion of "national pride". It only leads to wars in the end. Many Russians are blinded by their national pride.

"I know it's a lie when I hear that the Russian army is bombing civilians in Ukraine: because it's just impossible" said a nice old Russian lady when interviewed. :-(

I'm both French and American, and majored in History. Nothing to be proud of, if you subtract all the massacres, imperial wars, torture, colonization, slavery, etc from the achievements.

Humans Rights are under duress in both countries (Guantanamo, police violence) ; the democracy is under attack in both - even if their respective political situations are totally different.

This bridge symbolizes in my opinion the great achievements made possible when humans choose to cooperate rather than compete in the zero-sum game of national prides.

So, a great bridge, the longest of its kind! Well done, everybody, impressive!

The thing is, national pride is kinda mandatory in authoritarian countries. So, if there is one thing that the French and American can be proud of, it's the ability to openly criticize their government. Whether it leads to something or not is another discussion though.

Despots can actually be a lot better than us at building things. China can put a hospital up inside of a week!

Both of those things can be true by building a large bridge.

Turkey has some top-tier construction firms. Also, it's actually a lot easier to build mega-projects in autocratic societies, for both better and worse.

Didn’t stop Soviet Union from going to space.

Are you saying that space-age USSR was a true despotism, or are you equating "despotism of the proletariat" with actual despotism?

The USSR was not a "despotism of the proletariat". Soviet propaganda portrayed their government as the will of the people, but in fact it was an autocracy. The actual despots during the space race were Krushchev and Brezhnev.

That's why I put it in quotes. I don't see many parallels between Erdogan and Khrushchev, though.

Do we really need more car focused infrastructure in the world? Can someone explain in more detail about why this is an important spot to link? How about a train line?

>"Do we really need more car focused infrastructure in the world?"

So you idea is to tell people what they should post?

>"Can someone explain in more detail about why this is an important spot to link?"

It is technically interested achievement. Your comment on the other hand is utterly uninteresting.

No, people are free to post whatever they want. I was asking a question to generate discussion.

There already are two rail crossings, the Yavuz Sultan Selim Bridge and Marmaray Tunnel, both crossing the Bosphorus in Istanbul.

the dogs bark, but the caravan goes on

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