These are the Sails of the South, found beside the M275 near Portsmouth, England. Unveiled in March 2001 as part of the Gateway Project regeneration scheme, it represents a masted tri-sail in homage to Portsmouth’s maritime heritage.

Er, a bit like the Spinnaker Tower in, um… Portsmouth then?

Just to the south you can see the Tipner Bridge which received refurbishment as part of the same project – there’s several masts on it which light up at night, just like the sails do. And there’s a submarine here too!

Thanks to Dee.

Check out the awesome twin shadows of two bridges linking Devon and Cornwall over the River Tamar, England. The suspension bridge to the north is the Tamar Bridge which at the time of its opening was the longest suspension bridge in the UK. In 2001 it became:

the world’s first suspension bridge to be widened using cantilevers, and the world’s first bridge to undergo strengthening and widening work while remaining open to traffic.

Just to the south is the Royal Albert Bridge which was designed in 1855 by Isambard Kingdom Brunel no less!

The Sunshine Skyway Bridge is the world’s longest cable-stayed concrete bridge, with a length of over 29,000 feet. It connects St. Petersburg in Pinellas County to Palmetto in Manatee County, Florida.

A two lane bridge was built in 1954 and upgraded to four lanes in 1971. In 1980 disaster struck when the SS Summit Venture collided with the bridge in a storm, destroying 1200 feet of the southbound bridge. The northbound bridge took all of the traffic whilst construction of the current bridge began in 1982 and finished in 1987 at a cost of $245 million. The original bridge was then demolished but the approaches were left to be used as fishing piers. Just to be careful, the piers of the main span of the new bridge are surrounded by large concrete barriers called “dolphins” that can apparently protect the bridge from collisions with freighters much larger than the Summit Venture.

Thanks: drinklime, Jeff, Infinity & Eric T. Simon.

This is the Akashi-Kaikyo bridge in Japan – the largest suspension bridge in the world. Suspension bridges are measured by the length of their main span (i.e. the longest distance between suspension towers), and the Akashi-Kaikyo has an absolutely massive central span of 1991 metres – the longest bridge span in the world in fact.

Actually, it used to be 1990 metres but was stretched a full metre in the Kobe earthquake of January 17, 1995.

The bridge has a total length of nearly 4 kilometres, was completed in 1998 and cost around 5 billion US dollars to build – unfortunately it seems that the bridge toll is so high that most drivers still prefer to use the ferries. Oh well.

More info on the Akashi-Kaikyo bridge is available over at Wikipedia, where they also have a comprehensive list of the longest suspension bridges in the world.

Thanks to Jonathan Louie, belola, Trey Hunner and Kevertje.

This is the Somerset Bridge in Bermuda – which is apparently the smallest working drawbridge in the world! Wikipedia says the bridge:

consists of two cantilevered half-spans, separated by a 32-inch (80 cm) gap bridged by a thick timber panel. The panel is removed whenever a yacht wishes to pass beneath the bridge, allowing the unsailed mast to pass through the gap.

Some dude at Princeton (who’s lucky enough to take family holidays in Bermuda) has a great river-level shot of this tiny sight.

Thanks to Sara.