The world's longest ice bridge can withstand two-ton load

The bridge, built from frozen fiberglass, can withstand the weight of a two-ton vehicle.

The ice bridge will be built according to the design over 500 years ago by Leonardo Da Vinci. (Photo: Discovery News.)

From December 28, 2015 to February 13, 1616, a team of students and volunteers teamed up to build the world's longest bridge in Finland. Long 65 m and 5 m wide, the bridge is sturdy enough to allow a two-ton truck to run through.

The team designed the bridge design based on the 1502 sketch of Leonardo Da Vinci . Da Vinci had planned to build a bridge across the Bosporus, a natural strait in northwestern Turkey, but his drawings never came true.

The bridge in Finland is part of the international project of the Eindhoven University of Technology in the Netherlands. Workers use a material called pykrete made from water mixed with paper fibers to build bridges. When frozen, pykrete has three times more durability than regular and ten times stronger.

The construction team sprayed the mixture on a giant inflatable globe, acting as a mold for the dome. After the shaping material, the ball will be moved from below.

The bridge will go into the test when it is finished and if it will withstand the load, it will become a pedestrian bridge. After a few months, when the ice melts in the spring, the paper core will be used as fertilizer.