The Amazon River stretches an incredible 7,100 kilometers without a single bridge - making it unique among the world's major rivers. While the Nile has 9 bridges in Cairo alone, and China built over 100 bridges across the Yangtze in just 30 years, the Amazon remains unbridged.
The reason isn't simply its width - the river narrows to just 1 kilometer in dry seasons. The real challenge lies in the Amazon's wild seasonal changes, where the river can expand up to 50 kilometers during rainy seasons, combined with unstable soil conditions that make bridge foundations nearly impossible to secure.
Engineering experts call it "a civil engineer's worst nightmare." The combination of extreme flooding, unstable riverbanks, and the technical challenge of building infrastructure in remote rainforest locations has deterred even the most ambitious bridge proposals.
In 2019, Brazil's government explored building the first bridge, but faced astronomical costs and logistical barriers that ultimately proved insurmountable. For now, the mighty Amazon continues to flow freely, unbridged across its entire length.
Sources: Live Science, University of Washington Engineering Department, Brazilian Infrastructure Ministry Reports
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