Lake Pontchartrain Causeway

For roughly eight miles in the middle of the 23.83-mile span, no land is visible in any direction. You are driving on concrete pilings across open water. The Lake Pontchartrain Causeway holds the Guinness World Record for longest continuous bridge over water in the world — a distinction that survived a 2011 challenge from China's Jiaozhou Bay Bridge, which is longer in aggregate but crosses water for only 16.1 miles. The causeway crosses for 23.83. The original two-lane span opened in 1956 at a cost of $46 million. A parallel span opened in 1969, running 0.01 miles longer. The two bridges are supported by 9,500 concrete pilings. A bascule bridge spans the navigation channel eight miles south of the north shore. Approximately 40,000 vehicles cross daily. The American Society of Civil Engineers designated the causeway a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark in 2013. The idea dates to the early 19th century and Bernard de Marigny, the founder of Mandeville, who started a ferry service that operated into the mid-1930s. The modern causeway took form in 1948 when Ernest M. Loëb Jr. lobbied the Louisiana Legislature to create what is now the Causeway Commission. The Louisiana Bridge Company appointed James E. Walters Sr. to direct construction. The opening cut drive time into New Orleans by up to 50 minutes, bringing the North Shore into the New Orleans metropolitan area. Prior to 1956, residents of St. Tammany Parish used either the Maestri Bridge or the Rigolets Bridge, both near Slidell, or crossed via Manchac on the west side. After Hurricane Katrina severely damaged the I-10 Twin Span Bridge in 2005, the causeway became a major route for recovery teams. The bridges have never sustained major damage from hurricanes. The south toll plaza in Metairie is the only place you pay — northbound is free. The toll changed in 2017 to fund safety improvements: $5 cash, $3 with a toll tag. On June 16, 1964, barges tore a gap in the bridge and a bus plunged into the lake, killing six people. The causeway has operated as a toll bridge since construction. You cross because it is the fastest way to the North Shore, and because for eight miles you are alone on the water.