Although it is more than 6,400 km long, the strange thing is that the Amazon River has no bridges across it.
The mighty Amazon River is one of the largest and longest rivers in the world. With a length of more than 6,400 km and an average water flow of 219 m3/s, it becomes the only competitor to the Nile River (6,650 km long) in Africa.
However, the Amazon River differs from the Nile River in one very different way: it has no bridge across it. Why is that so, the answer will surprise you.
Although it is more than 6,400 km long, the strange thing is that the Amazon River still has no bridge across it. (Photo: britannica)
The Amazon River is constantly changing
Because the Amazon River has a huge scale, any construction project here is a heavy and difficult task, even on paper, or in reality.
The first and most obvious challenge is the water. The Amazon River is always in a state of constant change in flow speed and water flow in the river. During the dry season, from June to November, the average width of the Amazon River ranges from 3.2 to 9.6 km, depending on location. However, during the rainy season, from December to April of the following year, the water rises, causing the width of the Amazon River to reach 48 km.
At the peak of the rainy season, the water flow is very strong with a speed of up to 6.4 km/h. The instability of the flow and the unpredictable volume of water have made it difficult to design safe and sustainable bridge construction in the area. Engineers need to consider these factors, while also being mindful of the structural deterioration that can occur, due to the extreme amounts of water continuously impacting the bridge legs.
Sensitive environment, complex geology
Next to a fast-flowing river with tropical forests on both sides, this place also contains many swamps. This terrain causes many difficulties in building bridges. If building a bridge, the footing of the bridge must be very deep.
Walter Kauffmann, Chair of Structural Engineering Bridge Design at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Zurich, said: “The ever-changing state of the river, coupled with the constant erosion of sediments will cause Any construction on the Amazon River will become extremely difficult.”
During the dry season, from June to November, the average width of the Amazon River ranges from 3.2 to 9.6 km, depending on location. However, during the rainy season, from December to April of the following year, the water rises, causing the width of the Amazon River to reach 48 km. (Photo: britannica)
The risk of hurting the giant Amazon ecosystem
In addition to the complex geology of the area, bridge construction could affect the Amazon ecosystem. This river acts as a lifeline for 3 million animal species and 2,500 tree species living around. So, large-scale bridge construction projects have the potential to damage the biodiversity of the area.
Building a bridge on the Amazon River is not really urgent
According to Walter Kauffmann, the need to build bridges on the Amazon River is not really urgent, because most of the Amazon River flows through sparsely populated areas.
In addition, towns along the Amazon River now have a solid network of boats and ferries to transport goods and people from one side of the river to the other. So, investing in a giant bridge project brings only minimal benefits to local people.
