Leonard

Ian Leonard

The name of the bridge is the Akashi Kaikyo bridge connecting the Awaji and Kobe Islands. It spans 1,991 meters over the Akashi Straight. It was built because 168 children drowned when a ferry sank while crossing the straight. The bridge

is a suspension bridge, meaning the cables are used to hold up the platform. It cost $5.5 Billion to make and used 181,000 tons of steel and 1.4 million cubic meters of concrete. The biggest challenge that the engineers faced was

earthquakes. Their solution was to put a giant mechanical pendulum in the middle of the bridge to counteract the movements of the earthquake. It can survive a quake of up to 8.5 on the Richter Scale. The bridge took ten years to build and

ended up being three feet longer than expected after an earthquake moved the islands farther apart.

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