engineering

List of longest cable-stayed bridge spans

List of longest cable-stayed bridge spans is a engineering topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand List of longest cable-stayed bridge spans rather than just read about it. In short: This list ranks the world's cable-stayed bridges by the length of main span, i.e. the distance between the suspension towers. The length of the main span is the most common way to rank cable-stayed bridges.

Key takeaways

List of longest cable-stayed bridge spans belongs to engineering; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect List of longest cable-stayed bridge spans to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of List of longest cable-stayed bridge spans from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

This list ranks the world's cable-stayed bridges by the length of main span, i.e. the distance between the suspension towers. The length of the main span is the most common way to rank cable-stayed bridges. If one bridge has a longer span than another, it does not mean that the bridge is the longer from shore to shore, or from anchorage to anchorage. However, the size of the main span does often correlate with the height of the towers, and the engineering complexity involved in designing and constructing the bridge. Cable-stayed bridges with more than three spans are generally more complex, and bridges of this type generally represent a more notable engineering achievement, even where their spans are shorter. Cable-stayed bridges have the second-longest spans, after suspension bridges, of bridge types. They are practical for spans up to around 1 kilometre (0.6 mi). The Changtai Yangtze River Bridge over the Yangtze River in China, with its 1,176 metres (3,858 ft) span, has the longest span of any cable-stayed bridge, displacing the former record holder, the Russky Bridge over the Eastern Bosphorus in Vladivostok, Russia 1,104 metres (3,622 ft) on 9 September 2025.

Completed cable-stayed bridges This list of largest cable-stayed bridges includes all bridges with a main span of at least 500 metres (1,640 ft) in length. This list only includes bridges that carry vehicular traffic, such as automobiles or trains. It does not include suspension bridges, footbridges or pipeline bridges.

Cable-stayed bridges under construction

Longest cable-stayed bridge decks The definition of cable-stayed bridge deck length used here is: A continuous part of the bridge deck that is supported only by stay-cables and pylons, or are free spans. This means that columns supporting the side span as for example found in Pont de Normandie, excludes most of the side span decks from the cable-stayed deck length. There are some bridges with long bridge decks whose span lengths have not been published, and therefore are missing. Extradosed bridges are not included. The thirty longest decks are:

Timeline of world record lengths Many early suspension bridges included cable-stayed construction, including the 1817 footbridge Dryburgh Abbey Bridge, James Dredge's patented Victoria Bridge, Bath (1836), and the later Albert Bridge, London (1872), and Brooklyn Bridge (1883). Their designers found that the combination of technologies created a stiffer bridge. Albert Caquot's 1952 concrete-decked cable-stayed bridge over the Donzère-Mondragon canal at Pierrelatte is one of the first of the modern type, but had little influence on later development. The steel-decked Strömsund Bridge designed by Franz Dischinger (1956) is therefore more often cited as the first modern cable-stayed bridge. This list tracks the bridge having the longest cable-stayed main span through time.

This list may be incomplete and detailed sources for pre-modern cable-stayed bridges may not be available, so the timeline might not be accurate.

See also List of longest suspension bridge spans List of longest masonry arch bridge spans List of longest arch bridge spans List of longest beam bridge spans List of longest bridges List of highest bridges List of tallest bridges List of cable-stayed bridges in the United States List of spans — list of remarkable permanent wire spans Floating cable-stayed bridge Cable-stayed suspension bridge

Notes and references Nicolas Janberg, Structurae.com, International Database for Civil and Structural Engineering

Others references

Notes

Further reading Podolny, Jr., Walter; Goodyear, David (2006). "Cable-suspended bridges". In Roger L. Brockenbrough (ed.). Structural steel designer's handbook: AISC, AASHTO, AISI, ASTM, AREMA, and ASCE-07 design standards (4 ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill. pp. 15.23 – 15.27. ISBN 0-07-143218-3. — includes a list of major cable-stayed bridges by length Chatterjee, Sukhen (1991). The Design of Modern Steel Bridges. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 0-632-05511-1. Wai-Fah, Chen; Lian, Duan (2013). Handbook of International Bridge Engineering. Boca Raton, Florida: CRC Press. ISBN 978-1-4398-1029-3. Ewert, Sven (2003). John Wiley & Sons (ed.). Brucken. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 3-433-01612-7. Gimsing, Niels J. (2–4 June 1999). "History of cable-stayed bridges" (PDF). Proceedings IABSE Conference Cable-Stayed Bridges - Past, Present and Future. Malmö, Sweden: International Association for Bridge and Structural Engineering.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with List of longest cable-stayed bridge spans

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what List of longest cable-stayed bridge spans claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In engineering, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to List of longest cable-stayed bridge spans before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about List of longest cable-stayed bridge spans ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of List of longest cable-stayed bridge spans

In research: List of longest cable-stayed bridge spans appears in engineering research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses List of longest cable-stayed bridge spans in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: List of longest cable-stayed bridge spans is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Cable-stayed bridges, Lists by length, Lists of bridges, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for List of longest cable-stayed bridge spans outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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Frequently asked questions

What is List of longest cable-stayed bridge spans in simple terms?

Why does List of longest cable-stayed bridge spans matter?

Because it connects several engineering ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study List of longest cable-stayed bridge spans?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on List of longest cable-stayed bridge spans.