List of longest masonry arch bridge spans explained

The masonry arch bridges of stone or brick are the most genuine of arch bridges, some lasting a thousand years. Because they are made of worked stone, there is a slight chance they might even stand without mortar, like the Pont du Gard aqueduct. Yet arch bridges using rough hewn stones like Changhong Bridge need mortar to stand. Arches with a core of reinforced concrete covered by facade stone for decoration are not to be included in this list, the load-bearing part of the arch should be cut stone or brick, or as follows, unreinforced concrete.

In a closed spandrel stone arch bridge the hollow space can be filled with rubble and loose material. It can also be filled with concrete, in which case the filling itself becomes able to bear load in addition to the load carried by the ring of voussoirs. If the voussoir stones are thin they cannot take much weight so instead it is the concrete filling that becomes the structural part of the arch. The next step is to remove the voussoir stones completely, or only use them as facade stones. An unreinforced concrete arch is technically a masonry arch that use only very small stones, that is the aggregate of the concrete, sand and gravel. Such an arch would not stand without mortar.

Some modern bridges are built masonry style with precast concrete blocks, like Gladesville Bridge that has a span of 305 metres (1000 ft). These types are not in this list because their blocks are most likely made of reinforced concrete, that may make the assembled arch to have more in common with a modern reinforced concrete arch than a stone masonry arch.

The Maidenhead Railway Bridge may have the two longest arches made of bricks, 39m (128feet).

Building new masonry arch bridges today is a solely Chinese business. There are 18 stone arch bridges with spans exceeding 100m (300feet).^[1] There are probably several dozens of stone arches exceeding 40m in the Fujian province only.^[2] Almost all bridges were built after 1950.

This list contains the longest masonry arch spans ever built being at least 50m (160feet).

	Rank	Name	Span metres	Span feet	Note	Year opened	Location	Country	Ref
	1	丹河大桥	146 m	479 ft	Concrete deck		Jincheng, Shanxi		^[3] ^[4]
	2	Wuchaohe Bridge 乌巢河大桥	120 m	394 ft	Concrete deck		Fenghuang County, Hunan		^[5]
	3	Jiuxigou Bridge 九溪溝橋	116 m	381 ft	Concrete deck		Fengdu County, Chongqing		^[6]
	4	Changhong Bridge 长虹桥	112 m	367 ft			Kaiyuan, Yunnan		^[7]
	5	Fushun Tuojiang Bridge 富顺红旗大桥	111 m	364 ft			Fushun County, Sichuan
	6	Shengli Bridge	108 m	354 ft
	7	First Sizhuang Bridge	108 m	354 ft
	8	Xianfeng Aqueduct Bridge 险峰渡槽	106 m	348 ft			Ci County, Hebei		^[8]
	9	Huwan Bridge	105 m	344 ft
	10	New Tongshan Bridge	105 m	344 ft
	11	First Danhe Bridge	105 m	344 ft
	12	Jiangpinghe Bridge	105 m	344 ft
	13	Yugong Bridge	102 m	335 ft
	14	Gongtan Bridge	100 m	328 ft
	15	Youduhe Bridge 游渡河大桥	100 m	328 ft			Jiangjin District, Chongqing
	16	Hongdu Bridge 红渡桥	100 m	328 ft			Mashan County - Du'an County, Guangxi		^[9]
	17	Longwu Bridge	100 m	328 ft
	18	Fujin Bridge	100 m	328 ft
	19	Jianjin Bridge	100 m	328 ft
	20	Daliushu Bridge	100 m	328 ft
	21	Jin-shan Bridge 金山大桥	99 m	325 ft			Hua'an County, Fujian
	22	Xiaoduchuan Bridge 现有红江桥	97 m	318 ft			Enshi City, Hubei		^[10]
	23		96 m	315 ft	Unreinforced concrete arches Concrete deck		Villeneuve-sur-Lot, Lot-et-Garonne		^[11]
	24		90 m	295 ft			Plauen, Saxony		^[12]
	25	Longmen Bridge 龙门大桥	90 m	295 ft	Two 60-meter side spans		Luoyang, Henan		^[13]
	26	Solkan Bridge	85 m	279 ft	Destroyed in 1916 Rebuilt in 1927		Nova Gorica, Goriška		^[14]
	27	Adolphe Bridge	84 m	276 ft	Concrete deck		Luxembourg City		^[15]
	28	Pont des Pierres	80 m	262 ft	Destroyed in 1944		Montanges, Ain		^[16]
	29		79 m	259 ft			La Mure, Isère		^[17]
	30	Trezzo sull'Adda Bridge	72 m	236 ft	Destroyed in 1416		Trezzo sull'Adda, Lombardy		^[18]
	31	Steyrling Bridge	70 m	230 ft			Steyrling, Upper Austria		^[19]
	32		68 m	223 ft			Constantine, Constantine Province		^[20]
	33	Union Arch Bridge	67 m	220 ft			Cabin John, Maryland		^[21]
	34		66 m	217 ft			Wuppertal, North Rhine-Westphalia		^[22]
	35	Veresk Bridge	66 m	217 ft			Veresk, Mazandaran Province		^[23]
	36	Gutach Bridge	64 m	210 ft			Lenzkirch, Baden-Württemberg		^[24]
	37		64 m	210 ft	Tamped concrete arch		Kempten, Bavaria		^[25]
	38		64 m	210 ft	Tamped concrete arch		Kempten, Bavaria
	39		64 m	210 ft			Peyrieu, Ain - La Balme, Savoie		^[26]
	40		63 m	207 ft			Munich, Bavaria		^[27]
	41		63 m	207 ft			Munich, Bavaria		^[28]
	42	Grosvenor Bridge	61 m	200 ft			Chester, North West England		^[29]
	43		61 m	200 ft			Lavaur, Tarn		^[30]
	44	Pont du Gour Noir	60 m	197 ft			Uzerche - Saint-Ybard, Corrèze		^[31]
	45	Wechselburg-Göhrer Bridge	60 m	197 ft			Wechselburg, Saxony		^[32]
	46		60 m	197 ft			Rennebu, Sør-Trøndelag		^[33]
	47	Huanghugang Bridge 黄虎港大桥	60 m	197 ft			Hupingshanzhen, Hunan		^[34]
	48	Wallstraßenbrücke	57 m	187 ft	Tamped concrete arch Destroyed in 1945				^[35]
	49	Skodje Bridge	57 m	187 ft			Skodje, Møre og Romsdal		^[36]
	50	Escot Viaduct	56 m	184 ft			Escot, Pyrénées-Atlantiques		^[37]
	51	Ballochmyle Viaduct	55 m	180 ft			Mauchline - Catrine, East Ayrshire		^[38]
	52	Wiesen Viaduct	55 m	180 ft			Davos Wiesen, Grisons		^[39]
	53		55 m	180 ft			Pélussin, Loire		^[40]
	54	Rabastens Bridge	55 m (x2)	180 ft (x2)	Concrete deck		Rabastens - Coufouleux, Tarn		^[41]
	55	Pont de Vieille-Brioude	54 m	177 ft	Destroyed many times Rebuilt in 1832 with 45 meters span		Vieille-Brioude, Haute-Loire		^[42]
	56		54 m	177 ft			Dombås, Oppland
	57	Yixiantian Bridge 一线天桥	54 m	177 ft	Concrete deck		Hanyuan County, Sichuan		^[43]
	58	Gignac Bridge	50 m	164 ft			Gignac, Hérault		^[44]
	59		50 m (x4)	164 ft (x4)	Destroyed during the World War II		Nogent-sur-Marne, Val-de-Marne		^[45]
	60	Munderkingen Bridge	50 m	164 ft	Tamped concrete arch Destroyed in 1945		Munderkingen, Baden-Württemberg		^[46]
	61		50 m	164 ft			Carry-le-Rouet, Bouches-du-Rhône		^[47]
	62		50 m	164 ft			Treungen, Telemark
	63	白沙大桥	50 m (x2)	164 ft (x2)			Jiande, Zhejiang		^[48]

See also

• • • List of longest arch bridge spans
• List of spans (list of remarkable permanent wire spans)

References

• Structurae.com, International Database for Civil and Structural Engineering

• Others references

Further reading

• Book: Wai-Fah. Chen. Lian. Duan. Handbook of International Bridge Engineering. 2013. . Boca Raton, Florida . 978-1-4398-1029-3 . .
• Book: Ewert, Sven. Brucken. 2003. John Wiley & Sons. 3-433-01612-7. .

Notes and References

1. Book: Hu . C-W . Hu. Liu. Zhou . ARCH'01 . 2001 . Presses des Ponts . Paris . 9782859783471 . The longest span stone arch bridge in the world. 667. 2009-01-18 . PDF.
2. Book: Ou . Z. . Chen . B. . Stone arch bridges in Fujian, China . Fuzhou University . 271 . https://web.archive.org/web/20110707013250/http://www.arch-bridges.cn/attach/07/Stone%20arch%20bridges%20in%20Fujian%2C%20China%20.pdf . 7 July 2011 . 27 January 2017 . dead .
3. Web site: Shanxi Danhe Bridge . Arch-bridges.cn . College of Civil Engineering, Fuzhou University, China . 27 January 2017 . bot: unknown . https://web.archive.org/web/20120213102821/http://www.arch-bridges.cn/Show.asp?PaperID=225 . 13 February 2012 .
4. http://www.highestbridges.com/wiki/index.php?title=Danhe_Bridge Danhe Bridge
5. Web site: Wuchaohe Bridge.
6. Web site: Jiuxigou Bridge.
7. Web site: Changhong Bridge.
8. Web site: 险峰渡槽. Ccxbk.info. zh. 27 January 2017.
9. Web site: Hongdu Bridge.
10. Web site: 这次是真的了吧，闲置8年的红江桥明年2月通车. V4.cc. zh. 27 January 2017.
11. Web site: Pont de la Libération.
12. Web site: Peace Bridge.
13. Web site: Longmen Bridge.
14. Web site: Solkan Bridge.
15. Web site: Adolphe Bridge.
16. Web site: Viaduc des Pierres.
17. Web site: Roizonne Viaduct.
18. Web site: Trezzo Bridge.
19. Book: Humar. Gorazd . World famous arch bridges in Slovenia . https://web.archive.org/web/20111003134341/http://www.eccenet.org/News/tech/ARCHBRIDGES.doc. October 3, 2011. 27 January 2017.
20. Web site: Sidi Rached Bridge.
21. Web site: Cabin John Aqueduct Bridge.
22. Web site: Sonnborn Railroad Bridge.
23. Web site: Veresk Bridge.
24. Web site: Gutach Bridge.
25. Web site: Illerbrücken Kempten.
26. Web site: La Balme Bridge.
27. Web site: Luitpoldbrücke.
28. Web site: Max-Joseph-Brücke.
29. Web site: Grosvenor Bridge.
30. Web site: Lavaur Railroad Bridge.
31. Web site: Pont du Gour Noir.
32. Web site: Wechselburg-Göhren Bridge.
33. Book: Steinhvelvbruer, Vegvesenets Håndbokserie. Statens Vegvesen . December 2002 . 230. 82-7207-522-9 . 66 . no. PDF.
34. Web site: Huanghugang Bridge.
35. Web site: Wallstrassenbrücke.
36. Book: Enkeltobjekter 131-158 (Nord-Trøndelag, Sør Trøndelag, Møre og Romsdal og Sogn og Fjordane). Norwegian Public Roads Administration . 27 January 2017 . PDF.
37. Web site: Escot Viaduct.
38. Web site: Ballochmyle Viaduct.
39. Web site: Landwasser Bridge (Wiesen).
40. Web site: Pélussin Tramway Bridge.
41. Web site: Rabastens Bridge.
42. Web site: Vieille-Brioude Bridge.
43. Web site: Yixiantian Bridge.
44. Web site: Gignac Bridge.
45. Web site: Nogent-sur-Marne Viaduct.
46. Web site: Munderkingen Bridge.
47. Web site: Pont de la Calanque des Eaux Salées.
48. Web site: Baisha Bridge.