The World’s Longest Bridge Over Water: Lake Pontchartrain Causeway

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By Tony Dunnell.

The world-record holder for the longest bridge stretching continuously over water.

IN 1969, LOUISIANA’S LAKE Pontchartrain Causeway was officially recognized by Guinness World Records as the longest bridge over water in the world. Then, in 2011, a rival claim from China threatened to oust the nearly 24-mile bridge from the top spot. But the causeway wasn’t bowing out without a fight.

As New Orleans expanded in the 1940s and 1950s, access to the north of the city became a problem. For people heading north from the city, or traveling south towards New Orleans, one major obstacle had to be circumvented: Lake Pontchartrain.

Heading east or west around the lake was a time-consuming process, so plans were made to create a direct connection across the center of the lake to its northern shore. In 1955, the Louisiana Bridge Company was created to undertake the construction project. It took just 14 months to build the first two-lane span of the causeway, which opened in 1956 with a total length of 23.86 miles.

The bridge is so long that motorists lose sight of land for an eight-mile stretch, and drivers have been known to freeze out of some kind of false seaborne fear, at which point the police have escorted them off the bridge. Babies have been born on the causeway when their mothers failed to make it to the hospital on the other side. And an airplane once ran out of gas over the lake, eventually landing safely on the bridge.

A decade after the completion of the first bridge, daily traffic had surpassed 5,300 vehicles. Plans were made to expand the causeway by building a second two-lane span parallel to the original. The second bridge was opened in 1969, separated from the original by about 84 feet.

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Image Credit: istock images
Image Credit: istock images