This is a list of the highest

bridge A bridge is a structure built to Span (engineering), span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or railway) without blocking the path underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, whi ...

s in the United States by height over land or water.

Definitions

''Height'' in this list refers to the distance from the bridge deck to the lowest point on the land, or the water surface, directly below. A bridge's deck height is greater than its ''clearance below'', which is measured from the bottom of the deck structure, with the difference being equal to the thickness of the deck structure at the point with the greatest clearance below. Official figures for a bridge's height are often provided only for the clearance below, so those figures may be used instead of actual deck height measurements. For bridges that span tidal water, the clearance below is measured at the average high water level. The minimum height for inclusion in this list is ', which may be either the ''deck height'' or the ''clearance below'' depending on available references. Note that the following types of bridges are not included in this list: demolished high bridges; historic high bridges such as those over reservoirsregardless of current reservoir levelsthat were filled after the bridge was complete, unless the dam has since been removed; and

vertical-lift bridge A vertical-lift bridge or just lift bridge is a type of movable bridge in which a span rises vertically while remaining parallel with the deck. The vertical lift offers several benefits over other movable bridges such as the bascule and swi ...

s, even those with raised span heights greater than this list's minimum height.

List of bridges

Most of the bridges in this list derive their height from crossing between the rims of a deep

canyon A canyon (; archaic British English spelling: ''cañon''), gorge or chasm, is a deep cleft between escarpments or cliffs resulting from weathering and the erosive activity of a river over geologic time scales. Rivers have a natural tendency t ...

. Some others cross navigation channels and are designed with a deck clearance that can accommodate oceangoing vessels, such as

container ship A container ship (also called boxship or spelled containership) is a cargo ship that carries all of its load in truck-size intermodal containers, in a technique called containerization. Container ships are a common means of commercial intermodal ...

ocean liner An ocean liner is a type of passenger ship primarily used for transportation across seas or oceans. Ocean liners may also carry cargo or mail, and may sometimes be used for other purposes (such as for pleasure cruises or as hospital ships). The ...

s and

cruise ship Cruise ships are large passenger ships used mainly for vacationing. Unlike ocean liners, which are used for transport, cruise ships typically embark on round-trip voyages to various ports of call, where passengers may go on Tourism, tours k ...

s. The largest of these is around , so there are often bridges with approximately that height located in coastal cities with

bay A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a ''gulf'', ''sea'', ''sound'', or ''bight''. A ''cove'' is a small, ci ...

s or

inlet An inlet is a typically long and narrow indentation of a shoreline such as a small arm, cove, bay, sound, fjord, lagoon or marsh, that leads to an enclosed larger body of water such as a lake, estuary, gulf or marginal sea. Overview In ...

s, such as

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge The Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge ( ; also referred to as the Narrows Bridge, the Verrazzano Bridge, and simply the Verrazzano) is a suspension bridge connecting the boroughs of Staten Island and Brooklyn in New York City, United States. It spans ...

and

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

Golden Gate Bridge The Golden Gate Bridge is a suspension bridge spanning the Golden Gate, the strait connecting San Francisco Bay and the Pacific Ocean in California, United States. The structure links San Francisco—the northern tip of the San Francisco Peni ...

Gallery

The ten highest bridges in the United States: File:A028, Royal Gorge Bridge, Colorado, USA, 2001.jpg,

Royal Gorge Bridge The Royal Gorge Bridge is a tourist attraction near Cañon City, Colorado within Royal Gorge Bridge and Park, a 360-acre (150 ha) amusement park located along the edge of the Royal Gorge around both ends of the bridge. The bridge crosses ...

955' File:Hoover Dam, Colorado River.JPG,

Mike O'Callaghan–Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge The Mike O'Callaghan–Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge is an arch bridge in the United States that spans the Colorado River between the U.S. state, states of Arizona and Nevada. The bridge is located within the Lake Mead National Recreation Area a ...

900' File:New River Gorge Bridge straight.jpg,

New River Gorge Bridge The New River Gorge Bridge is a steel arch bridge long over the New River Gorge near Fayetteville, West Virginia, in the Appalachian Mountains of the eastern United States. With an arch long, the New River Gorge Bridge was the world's longest ...

876' File:American River Canyon (5166023272).jpg,

Foresthill Bridge The Foresthill Bridge, also called the Auburn-Foresthill Bridge or the Auburn Bridge, is a road bridge crossing over the North Fork American River in Placer County, California, Placer County and the Sierra Nevada foothills, in eastern California. ...

730' File:Glen Canyon Dam 2522.jpg, Glen Canyon Dam Bridge700' File:PhilGMcDonaldBridge.jpg, Phil G. McDonald Bridge700' File:Rio Grande Bridge, Taos County, New Mexico.jpg,

Rio Grande Gorge Bridge The Rio Grande Gorge Bridge, locally known as the "Gorge Bridge" or the "High Bridge", is a steel deck arch bridge across the Rio Grande Gorge northwest of Taos, New Mexico, United States. Roughly above the Rio Grande, it is the List of bridge ...

565' File:Perrine Bridge spanning the Snake River at Twin Falls, Idaho.jpg,

Perrine Bridge The I. B. Perrine Bridge is a four-lane truss arch bridge, truss arch span over the Snake River in the Western United States, western United States. Located in southern Idaho just north of the city of Twin Falls, Idaho, Twin Falls, it carries ...

486' File:Navajo Bridge, Spanning Colorado River at US Highway 89 Alternate, Page, Coconino County, Arizona, USA.tif,

Navajo Bridge Navajo Bridge is the name of twin steel spandrel arch bridges that cross the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon National Park (near Lees Ferry) in northern Coconino County, Arizona, United States. The newer of the two spans carries vehicular t ...

470' File:Us-id-boundary-moyie-bridge.jpg, Moyie River Canyon Bridge464'

Notes

References

External links

HighestBridges.com

Structurae.net
{{Bridge footer Bridges by height