This is the Pontchartrain Causeway over Louisiana’s Lake; in 1969, Guinness World Records formally acknowledged it as the world’s longest bridge across water.

Subsequently, a competing claim from China raised the possibility of the approximately 24-mile bridge losing its top ranking in 2011. However, the causeway was not going down without a struggle.

The 1940s and 1950s saw New Orleans grow, making it more difficult to get to the north of the city. One significant barrier had to be crossed for anyone going north out of the city or south into New Orleans: Lake Pontchartrain.

Plans were created to build a direct connection across the lake’s center to its northern coast because it took a long time to travel around the lake in either an easterly or west direction. To handle the construction, the Louisiana Bridge Company was established in 1955. The causeway’s initial two-lane section was constructed in just 14 months, and it was completed in 1956. The causeway is 23.86 miles long overall.