2 Bridge

Big, Bigger, Biggest... Bridge reveals how seven ingenious technological breakthroughs have enabled engineers to build the world’s longest suspension bridge – the Akashi Kaikyo Bridge in Japan.

Bridging a gap 3,911m long, the span between the two towers stretches nearly two miles. The amount of wire in its cables could stretch around the world more than seven times.

Part of an ambitious project to connect Japan’s four main islands together, the Akashi Strait is the most daring of all the waters to cross. One of the busiest shipping lanes in the world with 1,400 vessels passing through daily, with waters 100m deep, and currents 4.5 metres per second fast all had to be overcome to complete this superstructure.

It even had to withstand a major earthquake whilst it was being built.

At $4.5 billion, the most expensive suspension bridge ever constructed took a total of 10 years to complete, and required over 190,000 tons of steel, 1,420,000m3 of concrete and a total labour force of 2.1 million.

But the Akashi Kaiyko Bridge wasn’t built in a day.

It stands on the shoulders of seven key historic engineering achievements. We chart the stories of these inventions, embodied by seven landmark bridges that allow the Akashi Kaikyo Bridge it to span so far.

We show how lightweight materials were developed in the world’s first metal bridge – Ironbridge in England. We reveal how Thomas Telford reinvented the Suspension Bridge concept with his Menai Bridge in Wales. We recount how cable spinning developed to build the Niagara Falls Suspension Bridge and how underwater foundations evolved to create the Brooklyn Bridge in New York. We show how the construction of taller towers enabled the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco to be built and how aerodynamic designs evolved to build the Verrazano Narrows Bridge in New York.

One by one - travelling up the scale - we reveal the incredible stories behind these structures and the inventions that drove them to span even wider waters. Seven ingenious leaps forward that enabled bridges to evolve... from BIG to BIGGER into the World’s BIGGEST.

At every stage we show how each invention is applied in the Akashi Kaikyo Bridge.

We reveal how new materials played a crucial role spanning such a distance, and play close attention to how the intricate system is all maintained.

We show how huge anchorages weighing 350 000 tons were needed to prevent the bridge from effectively pulling out of the ground, and how the world’s biggest caissons were constructed to enable towers as tall as the Eiffel Tower to be built above waters 60m deep.

We recount how Japanese engineers built the worlds largest scale model 40m long, a bridge in its own right, to help them come up with a design that could overcome the powerful typhoons that hurtle down the Akashi Strait.

Over 50% of the film is set in a stunning and stylish CGI world, where our seven inventions and landmark buildings come to life. Combined with live action visual effects and practical demonstrations this film provides the ultimate explanation of how ingenious technology enabled bridge design to evolve into the ultimate sea-spanning superstructure – the Akashi Kaikyo Bridge.