Thursday 30th August 1956

Lake Pontchartrain Causeway opened, connecting New Orleans with its north shore suburbs. At 24 miles it was the world’s longest over-water highway bridge. Made up of two parallel bridges, the causeway is supported by 95,000 hollow concrete pilings sunk into the lakebed. It was originally designed to handle 3,000 vehicles per day but now carries that many cars and trucks in an hour.