China Links Two 20-Mile Bridges

The final link in a 20-mile bridge, said to be the world's longest cable-stayed structure of its kind, was connected Monday over China's Yangtze River, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.

The 6.45 billion yuan ($846 million) Sutong Bridge, linking the cities of Nantong and Changshu near the garden city of Suzhou, has the longest span of any cable-stayed bridge, at 3,569.55 feet, the report said.

The span of a bridge is the distance between the structure's main towers. The previous longest span in a cable-stayed bridge was the Tatara Bridge in Japan, part of a series of bridges linking the main Japanese island of Honshu with Shikoku. Its longest span is 2,920 feet.

The Yangtze River Delta, where the bridge is located, is in the midst of a massive construction boom that is bringing modern transport links to the Shanghai region, one of China's fastest growing industrial hubs.

On June 26, authorities plan to inaugurate the 22.5-mile Hangzhou Bay bridge, a structure that will link Shanghai with the port city of Ningbo to the south.

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Sutong Bridge. Construction of the bridge started in June 2003 and will be finished in 2008.



The location of Hangzhou Bay Bridge. The construction of the bridge started in June 2003 too. The bridge will be completed in 2009