Bridges have been around ever since people began to move themselves -- and their items -- from one place to a different. Early bridge engineers needed to do little greater than fell a tree across a ravine or stream, but they quickly discovered that they could span higher distances and haul heavier loads by placing extra time and energy into their buildings. Roman engineers perfected the stone arch and used it to build aqueducts -- bridges that conveyed recent water great distances -- and related constructions to hold traffic throughout streams and rivers. But the Industrial Revolution took bridge building to new heights and even greater lengths. The Brooklyn Bridge, completed in 1883, EcoLight smart bulbs was the longest spanning bridge on the earth -- till Scottish engineers accomplished the Firth of Forth Bridge simply seven years later. A new century brought longer, more amazing bridges. In 1937, the Golden Gate Bridge stretched its 8,981-foot (2,737-meter) back over the treacherous waters of the San Francisco Bay.

Today, engineers proceed to test the bounds of science and imagination. They experiment with revolutionary materials, designs and strategies of building. Their finished products move automobiles and trains. They also transfer folks's souls. What follows is a survey of some of essentially the most breathtaking bridges of the fashionable era. We've restricted ourselves to only 10 bridges, however not to any explicit area of the world. Our first stop is the Hangzhou Bay Bridge in China. The Chinese will not be new to bridge building. The Anlan Bridge, a suspension bridge first constructed in A.D. More than 1,seven hundred years later, within the Jiangsu Province, Chinese language engineers accomplished a venture that includes a 4,888-foot (1,490-meter) suspension bridge and a 2,575-foot (758-meter) cable-stayed bridge. Known as the Runyang Bridge, it was the nation's longest bridge -- for some time. In the present day, the Hangzhou Bridge, which opened in May 2008 after nine years of planning and building, holds the honor as China's longest bridge. It stretches a mind-boggling 22 miles (36 kilometers) throughout the Qiantang River at the Yangtze River Delta on the East China Sea.

That's nearly 25 occasions longer than the Runyang Bridge and nine occasions longer than Japan's pride and joy, the Akashi Kaikyo Bridge! The cable-stayed bridge snakes across the open ocean, carrying six lanes of traffic in both directions. Commuters should pay 80 yuan, or nearly $12, to cross it, but the toll payment is nothing compared to the bridge's price tag of 11.Eight billion yuan ($1.Seventy two billion). If it lasts so long as anticipated -- a hundred years -- it ought to have a very long time to pay for itself. There we'll discover the Strait of Bosporus and the subsequent amazing bridge on our list. Trendy bridges, such as the Hangzhou Bay Bridge, owe much to constructions that preceded them. Bridge building took an incredible leap forward in the 19th century as engineers in Europe and the United States utilized the ideas of physics to erect a few of the very best-identified bridges the world has ever seen. The Brooklyn Bridge has been a landmark of latest York City since it opened in 1883. Likewise, the Tower Bridge, which started carrying visitors over the Thames River in 1894, is virtually synonymous with London.

The Strait of Bosporus, additionally identified as the Istanbul Strait, connects the Black Sea to the Sea of Marmara. It additionally separates Asia from Europe. As such, it holds great strategic worth throughout occasions of war and peace. Though makes an attempt to bridge the slim physique of water date again to the Persian Empire, the most spectacular structure did not open for business till 1973. That is when engineers completed the Bosporus Bridge, a 4,954-foot- (1.51-kilometer-) long suspension bridge that remained the only bridge on this planet linking two continents till the Fatih Sultan Mehmed Bridge suspended its roadway above the strait almost 15 years later. Even with a companion bridge stealing some of its glory, the Bosporus Bridge stays a grand sight, especially at night. Thanks to an LED lighting system, the bridge's towers and zigzagged cables glow brilliantly in several colors. Every direction has three lanes for vehicles, plus one emergency lane and EcoLight one sidewalk.