World’s Largest Railroad Viaduct
July 31, 2006 | 9 Comments
I was recently contacted by Mary Everett of Greene County, Indiana who wondered about the Greene County Railroad Viaduct. She informed me of area claims which state that the 700m (2,295ft) long, 48m (157ft) high railroad viaduct is the “third largest such structure in the world”. She asked if I was aware of any evidence to support or refute that claim.
To define largest is always somewhat complicated. We could assume this means longest, but that ignores the height. Which of those should we give greater precedence to? To be larger does it need to defeat both or just one? It’s my opinion that beating both makes an obvious winner, but substantially beating in either still makes it “larger”. Additional complexity comes in deciding whether or not to consider width or spans. Finally, what is meant exactly by “such structure.” I assume we are only talking about viaducts used to carry rail. However, what is the difference between a bridge and a viaduct? As far as I can tell, a viaduct is a type of bridge that is multi-span and has to carry vehicles.
With those decision criteria established, I decided to use Wikipedia’s List of Bridges By Length as a starting point. Here is what I found…
The Binhai Mass Transit, Bridge No. 1 in China is 25,800m (84,645ft) long. They do not state how high this bridge is, yet it is without a doubt the longest bridge in the world that carries rail. Finally, the bridge carries two-way commuter rail.
China also has the second longest bridge. The Kam Sheung Road-Tuen Mun viaduct which is part of KCR West Rail in Hong Kong is 13,400m (43,963ft) long. Again, the height of this bridge was not stated. This bridge also carries two-way commuter rail.
To find the third longest rail bridge you need to travel to either Denmark or Sweden as the Oresund Bridge connects these two countries with a length of 7,845m (25,732ft). The only height measurement of the Oresund Bridge given is to say the highest pillar is 204m (669ft). This measurement is not extraordinarily useful in making a judgement since standard traffic runs on an upper level while trains run on a lower deck.
Finally we reach the largest rail bridge in the United States with the Huey P. Long Bridge in Jefferson Parish, Louisiana measuring in at 7,003m (22,996ft) and 41m (135ft) high. This is also a bridge that combines rail and standard traffic. The rail viaduct is much longer and extends elevated into the city of New Orleans.
The list continues on Wikipedia, but at this point it seems clear that the Greene County Railroad Viaduct is stretching to claim third largest such structure. In fact, I’m left wondering which three they specifically are claiming rank above them…
One other bridge you may find from a simple Google search for world’s largest railroad viaduct”. The Tunkhannock Creek Viaduct or Nicholson Bridge is 724m (2,375 ft) in length and 73m (240ft) high. This bridge makes claim to be the World’s Largest Concrete Railroad Bridge. I wasn’t prepared to disprove this as it seems pretty specific.
The Greene County Railroad Viaduct is still a very unique and amazing structure. I was sorry to have to disprove it’s status as the people in the region seem very proud of it. Thanks again to Mary for piquing my curiosities and for sending me along some great pictures of the viaduct.
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World’s Tallest Bridges
August 30, 2005 | 33 Comments
When I had an incoming search for “World’s Tallest Bridge” I was excited at the prospect of doing some research on bridges. For years I have been fascinated with all shapes and sizes of bridge, a definite side effect of living in Pittsburgh, PA. There are enough bridges in that city and county that they have a whole website dedicated to them. According to that website:
Pittsburgh has 30 river bridges with an additional 29 river bridges within Allegheny County for a total of 59. Then you may start to add the many others which cross streams, ravines, roads, railroads, etc. The typically cited a figure of over 2,000 in Allegheny County apparently doesn’t include railroad bridges owned by the railroads, and only includes those over 8 feet in length.
By some counts they have the most bridges in the world, but apparently Paris might have more or less depending on how you cont. While I’m still on that topic, here are my Pittsburgh favorites:
- Fort Duquesne Bridge, nicknamed “The Bridge to Nowhere” because from 1969 to 1986 one end hung in mid-air due to complexities in attaching it to neighboring expressways and bridges.
- Roberto Clemente Memorial Bridge, Seventh Street, and Ninth Street bridges nicknamed the “Three Sisters Bridges” (more pictures)
- Smithfield Bridge
- Homestead High Level Bridge
OK, moving on from PIttsburgh to the main event, the world’s tallest bridges.
The world’s tallest bridge is France’s Millau Viaduct spanning the River Tarn. The bridge stands at an impressive 341m tall and 2,460m long. This is in fact 30m taller than the Eiffel Tower. Construction completed in late 2004. Also, the roadway of the bridge is only at 270m, while the Royal Gorge Bridge in Colorado has a deck at 321m.
Although, it seems this is in fact only the world’s tallest vehicular bridge, I cannot find any sources naming any other sort of bridge that is in fact taller. If someone knows, I’m dying to find out.
More on the Millau Viaduct:
Official Site
BBC: France shows off tallest bridge
MSNBC: World’s Tallest Bridge
According to Wikipedia, the Akashi-Kaikyo Bridge (1,991m) in Japan is the world’s largest suspension bridge and this is also the longest bridge span. It seems the Millau Viaduct is longer, so I’m not sure why they haven’t updated. The Messina bridge in Italy is supposed to be completed in 2011 and will have a span of 3,300m, blowing this record clean out of the water.
But what about longer bridges that aren’t suspension? Well the Second Lake Pontchartrain Causeway in Louisiana is 38,422m long and crosses Lake Pontchartrain. That’s a lot longer… but doesn’t have much height.
To add one more level of complexity, the Tsing Ma Bridge in Hong Kong is the bridge with the largest rail carrying span (1,377m). So this one is really big and can handle lots of weight.
Finally, being from New England I must touch on covered bridges. The longest covered bridge crosses the St. John River in New Brunswick, Canada and is 390m. Plymouth, NH claims to have the world’s strongest bridge, Smith Covered Bridge, but I think they just made the claim and no one has challenged it…
More bridge resources:
The World’s Greatest Bridges
BridgePros
HowStuffWorks.com “How Bridges Work”
A couple other bridges I can’t resist:
- San Diego’s Coronado Bridge - I love it because it is big, high, and has a huge curve in it.
- Prince Edward Island’s Confederation Bridge (Official Site)
- Boston’s Charles River Bridge
- Plymouth, NH’s New Bridge (unnamed to the best of my knowledge) This brige is still under contruction/destruction, but will significantly change the initial view of Plymouth.
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