World's longest sea bridge opens in China... (but don't think about crossing it on foot, it's the length of a marathon)
At 26.4 miles long, it is five miles further than the distance between Dover and Calais
China has opened the world's longest cross-sea bridge - which stretches five miles further than the distance between Dover and Calais.
The Jiaozhou Bay bridge is 26.4 miles long and links China's eastern port city of Qingdao to the offshore island Huangdao.
The road bridge, which is 110ft wide and is the longest of its kind, cost nearly £1billion to build.

A bridge over misty waters: The immense £1billion structure which is supported by more than 5,000 pillars stretches for 24 miles along China's eastern port city of Qingdao to the offshore island Huangdao

Chinese TV reports said the bridge passed construction appraisals on Monday and it, along with an undersea tunnel, would be opened for traffic today.
It took four years to build the bridge, which is supported by more than 5,000 pillars across the bay, and it is almost three miles longer than the previous record-holder - the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway in Louisiana

Lengthy: The bridge stretches into the distance further than the eye can see and right, the first few cars roll out across the surface


That structure features two bridges running side by side and is 23.87 miles long.
The three-way Qingdao Haiwan bridge is 174 times longer than London's Tower Bridge, spanning the River Thames, but cuts only 19 miles off the drive from Qingdao to Huangdao.
Two separate groups of workers have been building it from different ends of the structure since 2006.
After linking the two ends of the bridge on December 22, one engineer said: 'The computer models and calculations are all very well but you can't relax until the two sides are bolted together.
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