Debuting its latest modern marvel, China has opened the world's longest sea bridge, a 26.4 mile-long structure. Expanding across the wide blue waters of Jiaozhou bay, the vast Y-shaped bridge connects the Northern port city of Qingdao with an airport built on a nearby island and the industrial suburb of Huangdao. The bridge halves the journey time to the other side of the bay, making it just 30 minutes.
The first motorists to drive onto the six-lane bridge will have a free journey. For the first month, cars can plow the 110ft-wide highway across the bay free of charge, but after that, a trip on the bridge will cost 50 yuan ($7.75 USD).
Built in just 4 years at a cost reported by the Chinese state media yesterday as $2.27 billion, the bridge stands on 5,200 pillars and was entirely designed by Chinese engineers at the Shandong Gausu Group. Over 10,000 workers in two teams worked around the clock to build the bridge, constructing from opposite sides of the bay and linking the two ends together in the