We have already seen the longest bridges in the world and you might have noticed that none of them are from the UK! Well, this post counteracts that by looking into the ten longest bridges in the UK and where they are located…
Thelwall Viaduct
10 – Thelwall Viaduct (Length: 1,371m – 4,500ft)
Wiki Info: The Thelwall Viaduct is a steel composite girder viaduct in Lymm, Warrington, England. It carries the M6 motorway across the Manchester Ship Canal and the River Mersey. Its location on the motorway network is between junctions 20 and 21 of the M6, the former being also known as junction 9 of the M56.
9 – Avonmouth Bridge (Length: 1,388m – 4,554ft)
Wiki Info: The Avonmouth Bridge is a road bridge that carries the M5 motorway over the River Avon into Somerset near Bristol, England. The main span is 538 ft (164 m) long, and the bridge is 4,554 ft (1,388 m) long, with an air draught above mean high water level of 98.4 ft (30 m). It also has a separate footpath and cycleway which connects with Avonmouth station.
Cromarty Bridge
8 – Cromarty Bridge (Length: 1,464m – 4,803ft)
Wiki Info: The Cromarty Bridge is a road bridge over the Cromarty Firth in Scotland. The bridge joins a junction with the B9163 to the south in Ross and Cromarty with a junction with the A862 to the north at Ardullie Point. It can clearly be seen from the north from the Far North Line.
Humber Estuary Bridge
7 – Humber Estuary Bridge (Length: 2,218m – 7,280ft)
Wiki Info: The Humber Bridge, near Kingston upon Hull, England, is a 2,220-metre (7,280 ft) single-span suspension bridge, which opened to traffic on 24 June 1981. When it was opened, it was the longest of its type in the world; it was not surpassed until 1998, with the completion of the Akashi Kaikyō Bridge, and it is now the eighth-longest.
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Firth of Forth Bridge
6 – Forth Bridge (Length: 2,512m – 8,241ft)
Wiki Info: The Forth Bridge is a cantilever railway bridge across the Firth of Forth in the east of Scotland, 9 miles (14 kilometres) west of Edinburgh City Centre. It is considered an iconic structure and a symbol of Scotland (having been voted Scotland’s greatest man-made wonder in 2016) and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It was designed by the English engineers Sir John Fowler and Sir Benjamin Baker. It is sometimes referred to as the Forth Rail Bridge to distinguish it from the Forth Road Bridge, though this has never been its official name.
Queensferry Crossing
5 – Queensferry Crossing (Length: 2,700m – 8,858ft)
Wiki Info: The Queensferry Crossing (formerly the Forth Replacement Crossing) is a road bridge in Scotland. It was built alongside the existing Forth Road Bridge and carries the M90 motorway across the Firth of Forth between Edinburgh, at South Queensferry, and Fife, at North Queensferry.
The Queen Elizabeth II Bridge
4 – The Queen Elizabeth II Bridge (Length: 2872m – 9422ft)
Wiki Info: The Dartford-Thurrock River Crossing, commonly known as the Dartford Crossing and until 1991 the Dartford Tunnel, is a major road crossing of the River Thames in England, carrying the A282 road between Dartford in Kent to the south with Thurrock in Essex to the north. It consists of two bored tunnels and the cable-stayed Queen Elizabeth II Bridge.
3 – Tay Rail Bridge (Length: 3264m – 10,708ft)
Wiki Info: The present structure is the second one on its site. From about 1854, there had been plans for a Tay crossing, to replace an early train-ferry. The first bridge, opened in 1878, was a single-track lattice design, notable for lightness and low cost. Its sudden collapse in a high wind on 28 December 1879 was one of the great engineering disasters of history and its causes are still debated today.
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Second Severn Crossing
2 – The Second Severn Crossing (Length: 5128m – 16,824ft)
Wiki Info: The Second Severn Crossing (Welsh: Ail Groesfan Hafren) is the M4 motorway bridge over the River Severn between England and Wales, inaugurated on 5 June 1996 by HRH The Prince of Wales to supplement the traffic capacity of the Severn Bridge built in 1966.
The Bromford Viaduct
1 – Bromford Viaduct (Length: 5600m – 18,372ft)
Wiki Info: The Bromford Viaduct carries the M6 motorway between Castle Bromwich (junction 5) and Gravelly Hill (junction 6) along the River Tame valley in Birmingham, England. This elevated stretch of motorway above the Tame itself is 3 1⁄2 miles long, which makes it the longest viaduct in Great Britain, being a quarter mile longer than the Second Severn Crossing.