World’s Longest Suspension Bridge Between Sicily And Italy's Boot Gets Go-Ahead

IFL Science ^ | August 12, 2025 | Tom Hale

[Buttons12]

I too have Sicilians in my family tree. The 1908 disaster convinced them to come to America.

[Jamestown1630]

I think its referring to the suspension part of the Italian bridge. Bridges are often part suspension and other types of engineering combined.

[TexasGator]

“Pensacola here has a 3 mile bridge and there’s a 7 mile bridge in the Keys...........”

Neither have two-mile suspensions.

[Disambiguator]

I’m still waiting for the bridge from California to Hawaii. That would be a fun drive!

[montag813]

The Verrazzano Narrow bridge is 2.59 miles long.

[P8riot]

There are strong tidal currents that create whirlpools in the straight.

[TexasGator]

“My big concern if I was engineering it would be Sicily’s motion with respect to the mainland. The motion of the African plate causes it to move significantly every year. I don’t know how you engineer a bridge to handle that.”

Not significant.

[P8riot]

The suspended portion (between the towers) is what is cited as the length. Given that, the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge length is 4,260 ft, and the Straight of Messina Bridge will be 10,827 ft.

[virgil]

Roads and infrastructure can invite riff raff from other areas.

[dagunk]

Louisiana has a 20+ mile bridge over water.

*****************************************************

Lake Pontchartrain Causeway.

Driven it. Motorcycle. Weird.

[oldbill]

Elastic cables

[P8riot]

I wonder how many bodies are at the bottom of the straight.

[Wilderness Conservative]

$15.8 Billion doesn’t sound that bad considering the long and short term benefits. Hell, Sniffy the Clown goes through that in blow and baby oil in a month.

[Angelino97]

I saw that bridge in The Beyond.

[mowowie]

Those bridges are pretty terrifying..

[catnipman]

if the pic is accurate in terms of location, looks like the eyetalians ain’t too concerned about global warming causing oceans to rise ..

[Campion]

Lake Ponchartrain's is about 16-18 feet deep at its deepest.

The Strait of Messina is about 1000 feet deep at its deepest.

[Tell It Right]

Excellent point

[aquila48]

But Garibaldi re-conquered it from the bottom - Starting in Sicily.

[aquila48]

And you also have Etna that shakes things up every so often.