Spanning the vital shipping lane of the Suez Canal in Egypt, the El Ferdan Railway Bridge holds the record as the world's longest swing bridge. Completed in 2001, the bridge comprises two massive steel lattice swing spans, each measuring 336 meters (1,102 feet) in length, resulting in a total length of 640 meters when closed. To allow ultra-large cargo vessels to navigate through the channel unimpeded, both halves of the bridge rotate 90 degrees on colossal slewing bearings mounted on concrete pivot piers positioned on opposite banks of the canal.
The rotation mechanism relies on massive electric-driven gear systems that engage an internal ring gear within the pivot bearings. Opening or closing the giant structure requires precisely 15 minutes, during which each 10,000-ton arm smoothly pivots out over the water or aligns back with the desert rail lines. Achieving perfect structural alignment when closing is a marvel of precision engineering; hydraulic positioning pins and locking mechanisms pull the cantilevered tips together and lock them into place to form a continuous, stable deck capable of supporting heavy freight trains.
Because temperature fluctuations in the hot Egyptian climate cause significant thermal expansion in the continuous steel superstructure, expansion joints and hydraulic centering locks are specifically calibrated to accommodate linear growth without jamming the slewing mechanisms.