Lake Pontchartrain Causeway - wikipedia Lake Pontchartrain Causeway Not to be confused with the Pontchartrain Expressway, a section of Interstate 10 and U.S. Route 90 Business. Lake Pontchartrain Causeway The southern end of the causeway at Metairie, Louisiana in 1998 Carries 4 lanes of Causeway Blvd Crosses Lake Pontchartrain Locale Metairie and Mandeville, Louisiana, U.S.A. Maintained by Causeway Commission Characteristics Design Low - level trestle with mid-span bascule Total length 23.875 mi ( 38.442 km ) Clearance above 15 ft History Opened August 30, 1956 ( southbound ) May 10, 1969 ( northbound ) Statistics Daily traffic 43,000 Toll $5.00 ( southbound ) The Lake Pontchartrain Causeway, sometimes only the Causeway, is a fixed link composed of two parallel bridges crossing Lake Pontchartrain in southern Louisiana, United States. The longer of the two bridges is 23.83 miles ( 38.35 km ) long. The southern terminus of the Causeway is in Metairie, Louisiana, a suburb of New Orleans. The northern terminus is at Mandeville, Louisiana. Since 1969, it was listed by Guinness World Records as the longest bridge over water in the world ; in 2011 in response to the opening of the allegedly longer Jiaozhou Bay Bridge in China, Guinness World Records created two categories for bridges over water : continuous and aggregate lengths over water. Lake Pontchartrain Causeway then became the longest bridge over water ( continuous ) while Jiaozhou Bay Bridge the longest bridge over water ( aggregate ). The bridges are supported by 9,500 concrete pilings. The two bridges feature a bascule, which spans the navigation channel 8 miles ( 13 km ) south of the north shore. Contents 1 History 1.1 Guinness World Records controversy 2 See also 3 References 4 External links History This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. ( August 2014 ) The idea of a bridge spanning Lake Pontchartrain dates back to the early 19th century and Bernard de Marigny, the founder of Mandeville. He started a ferry service that continued to operate into the mid-1930s. In the 1920s, a proposal called for the creation of artificial islands that would then be linked by a series of bridges. The financing for this plan would come from selling home sites on the islands. The modern Causeway started to take form in 1948 when Ernest M. Loeb Jr. envisioned the project. Due to his lobbying and vision, the Louisiana Legislature created what is now the Causeway Commission. The Louisiana Bridge Company was formed to construct the bridge, which in turn appointed James E. Walters Sr. to direct the project. Satellite view Heading north on Lake Pontchartrain Causeway The original Causeway was a two - lane span, measuring 23.86 miles ( 38.40 km ) in length. It opened in 1956 at a cost of $46 million. This included not just the bridge, but three approach roads on the north end and a long stretch of road on the south end. A parallel two - lane span, 1 / 100th of a mile ( 15 m ) longer than the original, opened on May 10, 1969, at a cost of $30 million. Since its construction, the Causeway has operated as a toll bridge. Until 1999, tolls were collected from traffic going in each direction. To alleviate congestion on the south shore, toll collections were eliminated on the northbound span. The standard tolls for cars changed from $1.50 in each direction, to a $3 toll collected on the North Shore for southbound traffic. In 2017, the toll was raised to fund safety improvements on the bridge. The toll changed from $3.00 with cash and $2.00 with a toll tag to $5.00 with cash and $3.00 with a Toll Tag. The opening of the Causeway boosted the fortunes of small North Shore communities by reducing drive time into New Orleans by up to 50 minutes, bringing the North Shore into the New Orleans metropolitan area. Prior to the Causeway, residents of St. Tammany Parish used either the Maestri Bridge on U.S. Route 11 or the Rigolets Bridge on U.S. Route 90, both near Slidell, Louisiana ; or on the west side, via U.S. Route 51 through Manchac, Louisiana. After Hurricane Katrina on August 29, 2005, videos collected showed damage to the bridge. The storm surge was not as high under the Causeway as it was near the I - 10 Twin Span Bridge, and damage was mostly limited to the turnarounds. A total of 17 spans were lost. Structural foundations remained intact. The causeways have never sustained major damage of any sort from hurricanes or other natural occurrences, a rarity among causeways. The existing fiber optic cable plant was blown out of its tray but remained intact per optical time domain reflectometer ( OTDR ) analysis. With the I - 10 Twin Span Bridge severely damaged, the Causeway was used as a major route for recovery teams staying in lands to the north to get into New Orleans. The Causeway reopened first to emergency traffic and then to the general public -- with tolls suspended -- on September 19, 2005. Tolls were reinstated by mid-October of that year. Lake Pontchartrain Causeway Southbound Lake Pontchartrain Causeway The Lake Pontchartrain Causeway is one of seven highway spans in Louisiana with a total length of 5 miles ( 8.0 km ) or more. The others are, in order from longest to shortest, the Manchac Swamp bridge on I - 55, the Atchafalaya Basin Bridge on I - 10, the Louisiana Highway 1 Bridge, the Bonnet Carré Spillway Bridge on I - 10, the Chacahoula Swamp Bridge on U.S. 90, the Lake Pontchartrain Twin Spans on I - 10, and the LaBranche Wetlands Bridge on I - 310. The Maestri Bridge comes close, but runs short by two - tenths of a mile at roughly 4.8 miles ( 7.7 km ) in total length. Louisiana is also home to the Norfolk Southern Lake Pontchartrain Bridge, which at 5.8 miles ( 9.3 km ) is one of the longest railway bridges in the United States. The southern end of the Manchac Swamp Bridge ( on the western edge of Lake Pontchartrain ) is the western end of the I - 10 Bonnet Carré Spillway Bridge ( on the southwestern edge of Lake Pontchartrain ), and the northern end of the LaBranche Wetlands Bridge is the eastern end of the I - 10 Bonnet Carré Spillway Bridge ; so these three bridges, by name, are in fact one contiguous bridge. The total driving distance on continuous elevated roadway is over 38 miles ( 61 km ). Guinness World Records controversy For decades Lake Pontchartrain Causeway was listed by Guinness World Records as the longest bridge over water in the world. In July 2011 the Jiaozhou Bay Bridge in China was named by Guinness World Records as the ' longest bridge over water '. At that time there was some controversy in the United States as supporters of the former holder of the record, the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway, disagreed with Guinness World Records not calling the causeway the longest. Supporters made this claim based on its own definition i.e., the length of a bridge physically over water and concluded that the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway spans 38.28 km ( 23.79 mi ). and was therefore the longest. The Jiaozhou Bay Bridge spans water for only 25.9 km ( 16.1 mi ). However Guinness World Records using the criteria of measurement that included aggregate structures, such as land bridges on the ends and an under - sea tunnel stated that the Jiaozhou Bay Bridge is 42.6 km ( 26.5 mi ) long. Following this controversy in July 2011, Guinness World Records created two categories for bridges over water : continuous and aggregate lengths over water. Lake Pontchartrain Causeway then became the longest bridge over water ( continuous ) while Jiaozhou Bay Bridge became the longest bridge over water ( aggregate ). See also Wikimedia Commons has media related to Lake Pontchartrain Causeway. List of bridges in the United States List of longest bridges in the world Megaproject Prestressed concrete References Jump up ^ Christine Harvey, New Orleans Times - Picayune. `` Causeway lighting project cost double expectations ''. Retrieved 2007 - 02 - 22. Jump up ^ `` The Causeway website ''. Retrieved March 21, 2013. ^ Jump up to : Longest bridge over water ( continuous length ), Guinness World Records. Last accessed July 2011. ^ Jump up to : Longest bridge over water ( aggregate length ), Guinness World Records. Last accessed July 2011. Jump up ^ PILE RESTORATION OF THE LAKE PONTCHARTRAIN CAUSEWAY Jump up ^ `` The History of the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway '' ( PDF ). louisianacivilengineeringconference.org. Retrieved 2012 - 01 - 14. ^ Jump up to : `` Safety Improvements Causeway Bridge ''. Causeway Bridge. Retrieved 2017 - 05 - 19. Jump up ^ `` Toll Tags Causeway Bridge Tolls & Fees ''. Causeway Bridge. Retrieved 2017 - 05 - 19. Jump up ^ `` The History of the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway '' ( PDF ). louisianacivilengineeringconference.org. Retrieved 2012 - 01 - 14. ^ Jump up to : Reginald DesRoches, PhD, ed. ( 2007 ). Hurricane Katrina : Performance of Transportation Systems. Reston, VA : ASCE, TCLEE. ISBN 9780784408797. ^ Jump up to : Bob Warren ( June 30, 2011 ). `` Causeway refuses to relinquish ' world 's longest bridge ' title to China ''. The Times - Picayune. Retrieved 1 July 2011. External links Route map : Google KML file ( edit help ) Display on Google Maps Template : Attached KML / Lake Pontchartrain Causeway KML is from Wikidata The Causeway website http://library.rice.edu/collections/WRC/finding-aids/manuscripts/0488 Crossings of the Lake Pontchartrain West I - 10 Bonnet Carré Spillway Bridge Lake Pontchartrain Causeway East Norfolk Southern Lake Pontchartrain Bridge Norfolk Southern Bridge - related articles Types Moveable bridge Beam bridge Box girder bridge Burr truss Cantilever bridge Covered bridge Arch bridge Suspension bridge Timber bridge Cable - stayed bridge Truss bridge Extradosed bridge Visual index to various types Lists List of bridges By length Suspension bridges Cable - stayed bridges Cantilever bridges Continuous truss bridges Arch bridges Masonry arch bridges Highest Tallest Bridge failures Bridge to nowhere Commons WikiProject Portal Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Lake_Pontchartrain_Causeway&oldid=806299470 '' Categories : Bascule bridges in the United States Toll bridges in Louisiana Bridges completed in 1956 Bridges completed in 1969 Buildings and structures in Jefferson Parish, Louisiana Buildings and structures in St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana Transportation in the New Orleans metropolitan area Causeways in the United States Roads in Louisiana Road bridges in Louisiana Transportation in St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana Transportation in Jefferson Parish, Louisiana Tourist attractions in Jefferson Parish, Louisiana Tourist attractions in St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana Concrete bridges in the United States Trestle bridges in the United States Hidden categories : Articles using Template : Infobox bridge with clearance Articles needing additional references from August 2014 All articles needing additional references Articles using KML from Wikidata Talk Contents About Wikipedia Català Čeština Dansk Deutsch Español Esperanto فارسی Français 한국어 Italiano Nederlands 日本 語 Norsk Polski Português Русский Slovenčina Suomi Svenska Українська Tiếng Việt 粵語 中文 Edit links This page was last edited on 21 October 2017, at 02 : 01. 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Question: where is the longest bridge in the united states located
Answer: southern Louisiana