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Great Wall of China
Spanning 3,460 km (2,150 miles)—nearly three times the length of Britain—the Great Wall of China is listed by Guinness World Records as the longest wall on the planet. Its construction began during the reign of Qin Shi Huangdi (221 to 210 BCE) and it runs from Shanhaiguan, on the Gulf of Bohai, to Yumenguan and Yangguan. About 51.5 km (32 miles) of the wall have been destroyed since 1966, and part of it was blown up to make way for a dam in 1979.
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Pan-American Highway
If you want to take a road trip, how about the 48,000 km (30,000 miles) of the Pan-American Highway? The world’s longest road is actually a network of roads stretching from Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, to Ushuaia, Argentina, and running through 14 countries. Between 1977 and 1983, George Meegan walked the entire distance of the highway, from Tierra del Fuego to Alaska, taking 2,425 days.
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Gotthard base tunnel
In 2016, the world’s longest and deepest rail tunnel opened in Switzerland after nearly 20 years of construction. Running under the Swiss Alps, the 57-kilometre (35-mile) twin-bore Gotthard base tunnel provides a link between northern and southern Europe that is supposed to “revolutionize European freight transport.” Products that used to be carried by a million trucks a year are now ferried by high-speed train.
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Lake Pontchartrain Causeway
While the world’s longest bridge may be the Danyang–Kunshan Grand Bridge in China at 165 km (102.4 miles), the world’s longest continuous bridge over water is the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway, in southern Louisiana. It is actually two parallel bridges, with the longer of the two measuring 38.3 km (23.8 miles). About 9,500 concrete pilings are used to support the bridges.
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The Colossus of Prora
Also known as “the longest failed beach resort of the Third Reich,” Prora is a mostly abandoned collection of buildings along the Baltic coast, in northeastern Germany. A tourism operator was building the seaside resort to accommodate 20,000 working-class Germans, when World War II halted construction. The massive six-storey structure is 4.5 km (2.8 miles) long and takes about two hours to circumnavigate on foot.
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Osaka Kansai Airport Terminal 1
The Kansai International Airport is located on an artificial island in the middle of Osaka Bay, in Japan. Hosting domestic and international flights, its Terminal 1, designed by the Italian architect Renzo Piano, is the longest airport terminal in the world, running 1.7 km (a little more than one mile) from end to end. Kansai opened in September 1994, to relieve overcrowding at Osaka International Airport.
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Yonge Street
Toronto takes a lot of pride in its Yonge Street, running through the city and north of it through towns, cottage country and wilderness for 1,896 kilometres (1,178 miles). Its claim to be the world’s longest street is now in dispute, because of changes to the road in the Barrie area. However, Toronto holds steadfastly to its claim, providing a bronze map of its route on a downtown sidewalk.
