Jiaozhou Bay Bridge, Qingdao, Shandong Province, China

The Jiaozhou Bay Bridge links the city of Qingdao in Eastern China's Shandong province with the suburban Huangdao District across the waters of the northern part of Jiaozhou Bay. It is 42.5 kilometres (26.4 mi) long and reduces the distance between Qingdao and Huangdao by 31 kilometres (19 mi), cutting the travel time in half (from over 40 minutes to about 20 minutes). Opened on 30 June 2011, the structure is the world's longest bridge over water (there are longer bridges over land). Previously, the world's longest sea bridge was the 38 km Lake Pontchartrain Causeway, in Louisiana..
The bridge took four years to build, and employed at least 10,000 people. 450,000 tons of steel and 2.3 million cubic meters of concrete were used in the construction of the bridge, which was designed by the Shandong Gaosu Group. It is designed to be able to withstand severe earthquakes, typhoons, and collisions with ships. The bridge is supported by more than 5,000 pillars, 35 meters (110 ft) wide, carrying six lanes and two shoulders, and cost more than 10 billion yuan (US$1.5 billion) to build.