Poland, Gdańsk-Sobieszewo — pontoon bridge on Martwa Wisla (Dead Vistula)
These pontoon bridges are semi-permanent floating bridges located throughout the world. Four of the five longest floating bridges in the world are in Washington state.
Longest
The former Albert D. Rosellini Evergreen Point Bridge, at 7,578 feet (2,310 m), built in 1963, was the longest floating bridge in the world until the replacement bridge opened in 2016.
A pontoon bridge from Punda to Otrabanda across the harbor of Willemstad on the island of Curaçao. Notable because this permanent bridge is hinged and opens regularly to enable the passage of oceangoing vessels.[1]
Span 548 feet (167 m)
Egypt
Martyr Ahmed El-Mansy Floating Bridge
A pontoon bridge in the Suez Canal in Ismailia to connect the west and east banks of the canal with two lanes of vehicular traffic and a pedestrian lane.[2]
This bridge, connected Howrah and Calcutta on opposite banks of Hooghly River, was built using timber on pontoon and was opened to let river traffic through.
Completed 1994. Spans 4,086 feet (1,245 m) (the floating bridge part).
Located near Bergen, Norway, the Nordhordland Bridge consists of a free-floating bridge and a high level cable-stayed bridge. The free-floating bridge has the longest laterally-unsupported span in the world. It is sometimes referred to as the Salhus Bridge.
View of the Puente de Barcas in 1851, in the location that it had from the beginning of the works of the Bridge of Isabel II, in 1845, until its dismantling in 1852.
This floating bridge crossed the Golden Horn in Turkey. After it was damaged by a 1992 fire, it was towed up the Golden Horn to make way for the fifth and current Galata Bridge, a bascule bridge.
Replacing a private ferry when it opened in 1891, the movable structure operated as a toll bridge. It was used until January 1929, when a toll-free bridge of concrete and steel replaced it at a cost of $600,000.
Once considered the longest pontoon bridge in the world at 2,150 feet, its original construction cost $35,000.
The original reason for the bridge was the hauling of cotton bales considered vital to the railroad that owned it.
Over the years, it was washed away, in parts or completely, many times.[4]
Original bridge completed in 1940 but sank in 1990 because of weather and mishaps in maintenance.
Second bridge completed 1993. Spans 6,620 feet (2,018 m).
Spans Lake Washington in Washington State, carrying Interstate 90 traffic eastbound from Seattle to Mercer Island. A toll bridge until 1946, its common name is the I-90 bridge or Lake Washington Floating Bridge. It was the first floating bridge longer than a mile, and at the time was the longest floating structure in the world. It is now the second longest floating bridge in the world.
Spans Lake Washington in Washington state, carrying Interstate 90 traffic westbound from Mercer Island to Seattle. It runs parallel to the Lacey V. Murrow Memorial Bridge, which carries eastbound Interstate 90 Traffic, and is also commonly referred to as the I-90 bridge or Lake Washington Floating Bridge. It is the fifth longest floating bridge in the world.
Built on logs in 1820, then upon tarred barrels in 1884, rebuilt using plastic barrels filled with styrofoam in 1978, carries light automobile traffic. This bridge was closed for replacement spring of 2008, and the current iteration makes use of fiber-reinforced polymer pontoons.
^"Martyr Ahmed El-Mansy Floating Bridge in Suez Canal". .presidency.eg. Retrieved 2021-08-29.
^Troyano, Leonardo Fernández (2003). Bridge Engineering. Thomas Telford. p. 145. ISBN 978-0-7277-3215-6. there have been pontoon bridges which lasted many centuries due to successive repairs and rebuilds. A good example is [...] Triana bridge, which was a pontoon bridge for almost 700 years, from the twelfth century, when the Moors built it
^"The Famous Pontoon Bridge at Dardanelle". The Arkansas Gazette. Little Rock, Arkansas: Gazette Publishing Company. July 30, 1922. p. 26. Retrieved 1 March 2023. Although it has been rebuilt a number of times, its general plan remains essentially the same as the day it was completed. Its pontoons have disintegrated when the receding of the river has left them high and dry and they have sunk in periods of high water. They have broken loose in flood and drifted out of the memory of men; they have gone down under the weight of snow and ice. Yet always they have been salvaged or rebuilt or replaced or recovered and the highway thrown again across the river...
^"SR 520 Floating Bridge and Landings Project" (PDF). p. 8. Retrieved July 19, 2022.
