Humber Bridge single-span suspension bridge for 16 years from its opening in July 1981, until the opening of the Great Belt Bridge in June 1997, and was relegated to third place with the opening of the Akashi Kaikyō Bridge in April 1998. It is now the eighth longest single-span suspension bridge. The central span, at 1410 m (4640 ft), is the UK's longest. It remains the longest single-span suspension bridge in the world that one can cross on foot or by bicycle. The bridge is crossed twice during the annual Humber Bridge half marathon. In July 2013, work began on introducing a
Suspension bridge tightly bound cloth. The first iron chain suspension bridge in the Western world was the Jacob's Creek Bridge (1801) in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, designed by inventor James Finley. Finley's bridge was the first to incorporate all of the necessary components of a modern suspension bridge, including a suspended deck which hung by trusses. Finley patented his design in 1808, and published it in the Philadelphia journal, The Port Folio, in 1810. Early British chain bridges included the Dryburgh Abbey Bridge (1817) and 137 m Union Bridge (1820), with spans rapidly increasing to 176 m with the Menai Bridge (1826), "the