The record table, as of 2026, with the span measured between supports of the main span. The Rankings page keeps the full list, including bridges under construction.

suspension

1915 Çanakkale Bridge, Turkey, 2,023 m (2022); Akashi Kaikyō, Japan, 1,991 m (1998); Nanjing Xianxin, China, 1,760 m (2025). Under construction: Zhangjinggao 2,300 m, Shiziyang 2,180 m; planned: Messina 3,300 m.

cable-stayed

Changtai Yangtze River Bridge, China, 1,208 m (2025); Russky Bridge, Russia, 1,104 m (2012); Husutong rail–road bridge, China, 1,092 m (2020); Sutong, 1,088 m (2008). Under construction: Guanyinsi, 1,160 m.

arch

Tian'e Longtan Bridge, China, 600 m (2024); Pingnan Third Bridge, 575 m concrete-filled steel tube (2020); Chaotianmen, 552 m (2009); Lupu, 550 m (2003).

girder / box

Shibanpo Bridge, Chongqing, 330 m (2006), with a steel box in the mid-span of a concrete box; Stolma Bridge, Norway, 301 m (1998), lightweight concrete.

truss

Quebec Bridge, Canada, 549 m cantilever (1917), a record unbroken for over a century.

extradosed

Chinese and Korean spans in the 250–300 m range; the form is limited by its own logic rather than by a record.

• Tay Bridge, 1879, wind became a design load.
• Quebec Bridge, 1907, compression buckling of built-up members, and professional responsibility for construction-stage checks.
• Tacoma Narrows, 1940, aerodynamic stability of long spans; every suspension deck since has been wind-tunnel tested.
• Kings Bridge, Melbourne, 1962 and the box-girder collapses of 1970 (Milford Haven, West Gate), brittle fracture of high-strength steel; plate buckling of thin steel boxes; the Merrison rules.
• Silver Bridge, 1967, fracture-critical members; the NBIS.
• Ynys-y-Gwas, 1985, corrosion of ungrouted tendons; a moratorium on internally grouted segmental construction in the UK.
• Kobe, 1995, modern seismic design of substructures; Japan's Level 2 ground motion.
• I-35W, 2007, gusset plates as rated members; loads during repair works.
• Morandi, 2018, inspectability of encased stays; the Italian and European inspection reforms.
• Key Bridge, 2024, vessel size versus pier protection on the world's ports.

Korea built its long-span skyline in one generation. The Seohae Grand Bridge (2000, 470 m cable-stayed) was the first modern long span; the Gwangan Bridge in Busan (2003, 500 m suspension) made the form a city symbol; the Incheon Bridge (2009, 800 m cable-stayed, the longest in Korea) connected the airport; the Busan–Geoje Fixed Link (2010) combined cable-stayed spans and an immersed tunnel; the Yi Sun-sin Bridge (2012) hung 1,545 m between towers at the height of the admiral's birth year; and the Ulsan Grand Bridge (2015, 1,150 m) was the first single-span suspension bridge in the country.

The author's own projects sit in that list: the Busan Harbor Bridge (북항대교, 2014, 540 m cable-stayed) with its cable plan documentation, and the Gunjang (Dongbaek) bridge. Korean practice combines AASHTO-derived codes (KDS 24) with a strong domestic cable and fabrication industry, and the country now exports cable-stayed and suspension design to the Gulf, Southeast Asia and beyond.

The Gulf's bridges are an engineering response to heat, salt and speed. The King Fahd Causeway (1986) connected Saudi Arabia and Bahrain with 25 km of precast concrete over shallow sea, and set the durability template: low-permeability concrete, high cover, and cathodic protection from the start. Abu Dhabi's Sheikh Zayed Bridge (2010, Zaha Hadid with Hyder) is a sequence of sinuous steel arches with a main arch of about 140 m; Dubai's Business Bay Crossing (2007) and the Infinity Bridge (2022, a 295 m steel arch over the Creek) carry twelve and more lanes; Kuwait's Sheikh Jaber Al-Ahmad Causeway (2019) runs 36 km across the bay with a cable-stayed navigation span. Qatar, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia are building the next set.

Design here follows AASHTO with the Gulf's modifications, Abu Dhabi's TR-516 and TR-511, Dubai's own standards, and the lessons of Chapter 5: chloride, temperature ranges over 50 °C, and the difficulty of inspecting anything in summer. The elevated roads of Dubai and Doha are among the largest precast segmental programmes ever built.