This list ranks the world's cable-stayed bridges by the length of main span, i.e. the distance between the suspension towers. The length of the main span is the most common way to rank cable-stayed bridges. If one bridge has a longer span than another, it does not mean that the bridge is the longer from shore to shore, or from anchorage to anchorage. However, the size of the main span does often correlate with the height of the towers, and the engineering complexity involved in designing and constructing the bridge.