China can proudly boast having the longest wall and bridge in the world. The longest and deepest tunnel is in Switzerland. The longest street in the world might be in Canada. The world’s longest waterslide is in Malaysia. The long list of the world’s longest man-made structures keeps going.
Great Wall of China
Guinness World Records lists the Great Wall of China as the longest wall in the world, measuring 3,460 km (2,150 miles), or almost three times the length of Great Britain. It was built from Shanhaiguan on the Gulf of Bohai to Yumenguan and Yangguan during the reign of Qin Shi Huangdi (221–210 BCE).
Since 1966, approximately 51.5 km (32 miles) of the wall have been destroyed, and in 1979, a portion of the wall was demolished to make way for a dam.
Pan-American Highway
How about travelling the Pan-American Highway’s 48,000 km (30,000 miles) if you want to go on a road trip? The longest road in the world is actually a network of roads that connects Prudhoe Bay in Alaska to Ushuaia in Argentina, passing through 14 different nations. George Meegan spent 2,425 days walking the entire length of the highway between 1977 and 1983, from Tierra del Fuego to Alaska.
Gotthard base tunnel
After nearly 20 years of construction, the world’s longest and deepest rail tunnel opened in Switzerland in 2016. The 57-kilometer (35-mile) twin-bore Gotthard base tunnel, which passes beneath the Swiss Alps, connects northern and southern Europe and is intended to “revolutionise European freight transport.” High-speed trains are now used to ferry goods instead of the million trucks that used to do so annually.
Lake Pontchartrain Causeway
The Danyang-Kunshan Grand Bridge in China may be the longest bridge in the world at 165 km (102.4 miles), but the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway in southern Louisiana is the longest continuous bridge over water in the world. It consists of two parallel bridges, the longer of which is 38.3 kilometres long (23.8 miles). The bridges are supported by approximately 9,500 concrete pilings.
All of Prime, half the price.
Qualifying government assistance recipients can access all of Prime for $6.99/month (reg. /month).
Yonge Street
Toronto is very proud of its 1,896-kilometer-long Yonge Street, which winds through the city and through towns, cottage country, and wilderness to the north (1,178 miles). Due to changes to the road in the Barrie region, its claim to be the longest street in the world is now contested. To support its assertion, Toronto has provided a bronze map of the route on a sidewalk in the city centre.
