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Bridges & Tunnels: fun facts and quiz
The essentials in 7 ideas, with fun facts, an illustrated story and a quiz to see how much you know.
The essentials
Types of Bridges
Beam bridges rest on supports, arch bridges push their load outwards into the ground, and suspension bridges hang the road from cables.
Key fact
Some Roman stone arch bridges are still standing today.
The Golden Gate Bridge
San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge opened in 1937. Its colour, “International Orange”, was chosen to stand out in fog.
Key fact
When it opened, it had the world’s longest suspension span.
Famous Tunnels
The Channel Tunnel, opened in 1994, links England and France under the sea. It’s about 50 km long, with nearly 38 km under water.
Key fact
It has the longest undersea section of any tunnel.
Digging Tunnels
Modern tunnels are dug by tunnel boring machines: giant rotating cutters that grind through rock and line the tunnel as they go.
Key fact
Tunnel boring machines are traditionally given female names.
Record Bridges
China’s Danyang–Kunshan Grand Bridge, a railway viaduct about 164 km long, is the longest bridge in the world.
Key fact
France’s Millau Viaduct rises over 340 m at its highest point.
The Deepest Tunnels
Switzerland’s Gotthard Base Tunnel, opened in 2016, is the world’s longest railway tunnel at 57 km, running up to 2.3 km beneath the mountains.
Key fact
It took about 17 years to build.
Bridges & Wind
In 1940, the Tacoma Narrows Bridge in Washington State twisted in the wind and collapsed. Engineers learned to test bridge designs in wind tunnels.
Key fact
The bridge was nicknamed “Galloping Gertie”.
Fun facts
In north-east India, people grow living bridges from the roots of rubber fig trees, over decades.
Painting the Golden Gate Bridge never really ends: crews touch up its paint all year round.
When the Channel Tunnel’s two halves met in 1990, a British and a French worker shook hands through the gap.
Some tunnel boring machines are simply left buried once the job is done, because digging them out would cost too much.
Much of the world’s longest bridge is a low viaduct over rice paddies, rivers and lakes, not open sea.
Deep under the Alps, the rock around the Gotthard Base Tunnel reaches about 45 °C, so the tunnel has to be cooled.
The only death in the Tacoma Narrows collapse was a dog, left in a car on the bridge.
Story: The Woman Who Finished the Bridge
The Woman Who Finished the Bridge
1869. John Roebling, designer of New York’s Brooklyn Bridge, dies after an accident on site. His son Washington takes over.
Soon Washington is bedridden by the bends, caught working deep under the river. His wife Emily learns engineering and carries his orders to the site for years.
In May 1883, Emily Roebling was the first to cross the finished bridge, carrying a rooster as a sign of victory.
True or false?
Tap your answer to see if you got it, and why.
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Question 1 of 10
Suspension bridges hang the road from cables.
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True. Slung from towers.
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Question 2 of 10
The Golden Gate Bridge’s colour is called International Orange.
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True. Chosen to be visible in fog.
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Question 3 of 10
The Channel Tunnel links England and France.
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True. Under the English Channel.
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Question 4 of 10
Tunnel boring machines cut through rock with rotating heads.
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True. Lined with cutting discs.
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Question 5 of 10
The world’s longest bridge is in China.
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True. A high-speed railway viaduct.
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Question 6 of 10
The Gotthard Base Tunnel is in Switzerland.
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True. Under the Alps.
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Question 7 of 10
Wind helped destroy the Tacoma Narrows Bridge.
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True. It twisted until it tore apart.
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Question 8 of 10
Arch bridges were invented in the 20th century.
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False. The Romans built them 2,000 years ago.
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Question 9 of 10
The Golden Gate Bridge is painted gold.
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False. It’s orange; the “Golden Gate” is the strait.
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Question 10 of 10
The Channel Tunnel is a bridge.
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False. It runs under the seabed.
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Sources
- Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District — Bridge facts
- Getlink — Channel Tunnel facts
- AlpTransit Gotthard — Gotthard Base Tunnel
- Encyclopaedia Britannica — bridge types, Tacoma Narrows Bridge, Danyang–Kunshan Grand Bridge
- Encyclopaedia Britannica — cable-stayed bridge, Pont du Gard, Thames Tunnel
- UNESCO World Heritage Centre — The Forth Bridge; Pont du Gard
