Big and brand new bridges are pretty rare these days, after a burst of them (or such is my recollection) around two decades ago. So, here is a photo of an Oldie But Goldie, which I encountered on Twitter recently:
This posting is partly because I love that photo, but partly also because I am lunching tomorrow with GodDaughter1’s Dad, who is a renowned bridge engineer, and I need to remind myself to ask him about any good new bridges. If there have been any, he’ll know.
There are lots of new bridges in China, but nothing record breaking. The longest bridge (by single span length) in the world is the Akashi Kaikyō Bridge in Japan (1992), which opened in 1998. The only big one in Europe (or half in Europe) to have opened recently is the Third Bosporus Bridge in Turkey, which is big (1408m span) but not groundbreaking.
However, the Turks are also building a bridge over the Dardanelles that will have a span of 2023m and will open around 2023, and which will break that Japanese record. Those numbers are not coincidental, as they supposedly commemorate the centenary of the Turkish Republic which was declared in 1923, and they conveniently also break the record. . Probably the bridge is a little longer than it needs to be.
Of course, the last person to build a bridge there was Xerxes I of Persia in 482BC, who built to pontoon (floating bridges) there in order that his armies could cross to invade Greece. According to Aeschylus, the Gods were not impressed by this hubris, and they therefore produced a huge storm. According to Herodotus, Xerxes had both his engineers and the sea whipped and poked with hot irons in punishment.
In a happy world, some cruel fate will strike Erdogan and Greeks will again write bullshit about it, but I am not counting on it.