Support us here: / louisianadread
It can be slightly intimidating to some when crossing this bridge. You only have to pay the toll one way, but why do that when you can subscribe to our Patreon for the same price and much more gratification??
Host: Kyle Crosby
Transcript:
The Lake Pontchartrain Causeway is the longest bridge continuously over water in the world! I know what some of y'all are thinking: oh no Kyle it’s a bridge in China that’s longer. Wrong! But also kinda correct.
When the North Shore of Lake Pontchartrain started to populate more over the years, there was a need to lessen the time it took to get to the South Shore. Bernard de Marigny had a ferry installed in Mandeville that would bring people across the Lake, and eventually a steamboat-ferry would carry people across until 1936. A proposal in the 1920s called for the creation of artificial islands that would then be linked by a series of bridges instead of one long bridge, but those plans were cancelled.
In 1955, the Louisiana Bridge Company was created to undertake a construction project linking the shores, and the first phase was a two-lane span bridge from Metairie to Mandeville. It was completed the following year with a total length of 23.86 miles.
Flat Earthers beware because this is going to trigger you: If you’re standing on either shore, you can see the Causeway disappear into the horizon, then rise up again for the middle overpass. The bridge is so long that motorists lose sight of land for about an eight-mile stretch, and drivers have been known to freak out over some kind of false seaborne fear or eternal road theory. Tragedy would strike in 1964, when six people died as maritime barges tore a gap in the bridge and a bus plunged into the lake. Babies have been born on the causeway when their mothers failed to make it to the hospital on the other side. Even an airplane ran out of gas over the lake, and used the bridge as a landing strip.
The second bridge was opened in 1969, about 84 feet from the other bridge. It was only 50ish feet longer than the original, BUT that was enough to get the distinction of being the longest bridge over water in the world according to the Guiness Book of World Records. This title was held unchallenged until July 2011.
Guinness announced that China completed the Jiaozhou Bay Bridge in China and it was now the world’s longest bridge over water at a total length of 26.5 miles. People were quick to uncover that Guinness's criteria of measurement included aggregate structures. This means the Jiaozhou Bay Bridge includes bridges over land and an underground tunnel which are definitely NOT over water.
The issue was put to rest when Guinness decided to create 2 new categories. The Causeway became the “longest bridge over water (continuous),” while the Jiaozhou Bay Bridge became the “longest bridge over water (aggregate)”, but soon lost that title to the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge, in 2018.
However, the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway remains the world’s longest bridge continuously over water, more than 60 years after the completion of its original span. On your next trip here, admire this icon of Louisiana engineering on either shore’s lakefront community or drive across it yourself. Don’t forget your toll money, or better yet, give it to us instead by subscribing to our Patreon. I’m Kyle Crosby and this is Louisiana Dread!
#bridges #louisiana #history #guinessrecords