The Longest Passenger Bridge Ever at London's Gatwick Airport

Wilkinson Eyre Architects and the engineers at Arup have designed the largest and longest passenger bridge ever to span an active airport taxiway at London's Gatwick Airport.

At 646 feet long and 72 feet high at its underbelly (about 7 feet taller than the tailfin of a Boeing 747), with a main span of 420 feet, and weighing in at nearly 2,800 tons, the proportions of the new structure decisively trump its lone rival, Denver International Airport's 364-foot-long pedestrian bridge, which is only high enough to clear the smaller tailfins of 737s.

Statistics aside, the new span is a fluidly elegant structure, less a bridge than an elongated glass tentacle supported on massive Y-shaped columns.

The ambitious engineering project forms part of a major redevelopment effort at Gatwick, the United Kingdom's second-busiest single-runway airport.

It links the 11 gates of the North Terminal's satellite expansion, reducing the hassle and negative environmental impact of transporting passengers from terminal to plane, previously only possible by bus.

Estimates suggest that in its first year of operation, the bridge will save 50,000 bus journeys.

Though it looks effortless and ethereal, Gatwick's new landmark posed considerable design, logistical, and assembly challenges.

To find the best solution for such an unconventiona