Longest and most extreme bridges on Earth that will leave you speechless
Where to see the world’s longest bridges that impress everyone (photo: Getty Images)
RBC-Ukraine has collected astonishing bridges around the world that are worth seeing at least once in a lifetime, to truly feel the magic of human ingenuity.
There are bridges that people only photograph from a distance. And some structures literally play with your perception of reality. You speed along for ten minutes, twenty, half an hour… and around you there is nothing but endless sea or a deep gorge.
At some point, your brain starts to panic and asks: “Are we even going to arrive?”
Danyang–Kunshan Grand Bridge (China)
Looking at the list of the world’s longest bridges, it feels like China has been in a fierce competition with itself for years. And the absolute, undisputed leader is the Danyang–Kunshan Grand Bridge.
Its length is astonishing — over 164 kilometers. To understand the scale: that’s roughly the distance from Ukraine's Kyiv to Zhytomyr, but built from concrete and steel on massive pillars over land and water.
This giant is part of the high-speed railway between Shanghai and Nanjing. When the train rushes across it at extreme speed, passengers experience a true visual hypnosis.
The landscape outside the window becomes almost static: endless mirrors of rice fields, lakes, networks of canals, and a light morning haze. It is a journey where the boundary between sky and earth completely dissolves.
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Hong Kong – Zhuhai – Macau Bridge (photo: Wikipedia)
Jiaozhou Bay Bridge (China)
If the previous viaduct runs mostly over land and lakes, the Jiaozhou Bay Bridge is a pure challenge to the elements. It stretches for more than 42 kilometers and runs directly over the open sea.
No photo or video can fully convey the specific, almost primal fear a driver may feel inside a car on this route.
Everything here is intense: only salty waves around you, seagulls crying overhead, and strong storm winds. On foggy days, which are not rare in this region, the horizon disappears completely.
It creates a full, sometimes eerie sensation as if your car is stuck in a video game where the world’s textures haven’t loaded yet, and the road simply hangs in a white void.
Hong Kong – Zhuhai – Macau
This 55-kilometer structure is not just a bridge, but a complex, futuristic ecosystem connecting three major economic hubs of the region.
The project cost billions of dollars and looks as if it were built by aliens. A whole range of experiences awaits: classic elevated viaducts suddenly turn into artificial islands, and the road dives into a massive underwater tunnel to allow huge ocean liners to pass.
At night, the route looks especially impressive. When designer neon lighting is turned on across the structure, the bridge transforms into a giant glowing dragon lying over dark water beneath the clouds.
Driving tip
If you plan a self-driven trip across such bridges, always check your fuel level.
Running out of gas in the middle of a 40-kilometer sea bridge during a storm is one attraction you definitely don’t want to experience.
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Jiaozhou Bay Bridge (photo: Wikipedia)
Chesapeake Bay Bridge–Tunnel (USA)
The United States has its own legendary giant, one that tourists and truck drivers talk about only with emotions on the edge of panic. This is the Chesapeake Bay Bridge–Tunnel in Virginia.
This 37-kilometer complex combines high open spans over a turbulent bay, artificial islands, and deep underwater tunnels.
In bad weather, the conditions here turn truly apocalyptic. With violent winds shaking vehicles and massive waves crashing against the supports and splashing onto windshields, many drivers experience acute panic attacks and spatial disorientation.
The fear is so real that an unusual service officially exists on the bridge: if you are afraid to drive across, a certified driver can take the wheel of your car and transport you to the other side while you sit in the passenger seat with your eyes closed.
Øresund Bridge (Denmark – Sweden)
Europe also has its answer to Asian and American giants. The famous Øresund Bridge, which became a central setting in the acclaimed crime series The Bridge, connects Copenhagen and Malmö. Its uniqueness is not in record-breaking length (it is quite modest — about 8 kilometers), but in its remarkable engineering design.
You leave Sweden, enjoy sea views and offshore wind turbines, and suddenly the bridge in the middle of the water simply… ends. The road smoothly transitions onto the artificial island of Peberholm and literally disappears underwater, turning into a submerged tunnel. It is a moment of pure engineering magic that never fails to evoke childlike awe in passengers.
Chesapeake Bay Bridge–Tunnel (photo: Wikipedia)
Vasco da Gama Bridge (Portugal)
If the Scandinavian Øresund Bridge represents strict reinforced-concrete minimalism, the Vasco da Gama Bridge in Lisbon is pure southern aesthetics. Stretching for 17 kilometers across the vast Tagus River estuary, it once held the title of the longest bridge within the European Union.
The structure is designed to withstand the strongest earthquakes, yet visually it appears almost weightless.
The best time to experience it is at sunrise on a sunny day. The bridge rises above the water, wrapped in a soft Portuguese morning mist, while its pylons support the roadway like strings of a giant white harp.
Why are we so drawn to endless roads?
There is a hidden philosophical meaning in great bridges. They cross places where nature seems to have created insurmountable boundaries — over cliffs, seas, and oceans. They connect not just shores, but different cultures, countries, and human destinies.
For the modern traveler, crossing such a giant structure is a unique opportunity to be alone with their thoughts.
When there is nothing around except the sound of wind and an endless strip of asphalt disappearing into the horizon, you suddenly feel a strange mix of anxiety, freedom, and absolute unreality in everything around you.
Because sometimes the best journey is not the destination on the map, but the very moment of being between
