A European bridge is the tallest in the world, dwarfing the Effiel Tower. It is located just across the channel, and the bridge has retained this major title.

At its highest point, the Millau Viaduct in France rises 343 metres above the Tarn River valley. 

This means it is slightly taller than France’s most famous monument, the 1,083ft tall Eiffel Tower.

It was completed in 2004 and is a significant feat of engineering, spanning across the valley and connecting the towns of Millau and Séverac-le-Château.

Architect Norman Foster and structural engineer Michel Virlogeux designed it.

The construction cost was approximately €394 million (£334 million), and it took three years to complete.

The bridge officially opened on 16 December 2004. Since then, it has been named one of the greatest engineering achievements in modern times.

It is remarkable for its height, engineering ingenuity and ability to withstand challenging environmental conditions at such a height.

According to Construction Review, the top five tallest bridges in the world are:

• Millau Viaduct in France (336.4 metres)

• 1915 Çanakkale Bridge in Turkey (334 metres)

• Pingtang Bridge in China (332 metres)

• Husutong Yangtze River Bridge in China (325 metres)

• Yavuz Sultan Selim Bridge in Turkey (322 metres)

The 1915 Canakkale Bridge in Turkey is also known for breaking records. It has a total length of 4,608 metres (2.9 miles), a main span – the total length of the road between the bridge’s two towers – of 2,023 metres and towers at 318 metres high.

This makes it the longest suspension bridge in the world, passing Japan’s Akashi Kaikyo Bridge, which previously held the record.

It took five years to build and 5,000 workers. Impressively, it was completed 18 months before its scheduled completion date.

Turkey’s president, Tayyip Erdogan, officially opened the €2.5 billion (£2 billion) bridge on 18 March 2022.

In the UK, the tallest bridge is the Queensferry Crossing; at 1.7 miles long, the imposing structure is also the world’s longest three-tower, cable-stayed bridge.

It is so high that 48 double-decker buses would have to be stacked on each other to reach the crossing’s pinnacle 210 metres above ground.

Opened in 2017, the new crossing formed the centrepiece of a major upgrade to the cross-Forth transport corridor in the east of Scotland. It cost the Scottish Government more than £1.3 billion to build, below the original estimate of between £3.2 and £4.2 billion.