China on Tuesday (June 26, 2007) completed construction of the world's longest sea-crossing bridge, a 36-kilometre-long road link across the East China Sea. Costing about $1.5 billion, the Hangzhou Bay Bridge dwarfs other bridges across seawater, such as the 25-km causeway connecting Bahrain to Saudi Arabia. It is long enough to link Britain and France across the English Channel. Built to withstand typhoons that hit the eastern Chinese seabord near Shanghai, as well as shifting soil conditions, the concrete-and-steel bridge took three years to complete and was one of China's most challenging construction projects. Firecrackers and traditional dancers greeted over a thousand guests at a ceremony in the middle of the bridge as engineers finished work on the final construction block. "The Hangzhou Bay Bridge stands out as the world's longest sea-crossing bridge in comparison with those already built as well as those in construction. In terms of its design, construction, facilities,...