On April 5, 1998, the longest suspension bridge in the world, the Mingshi Strait (1) Bridge (2), was officially opened to traffic. The bridge is situated between Kobe City and Awaji Island, Japan (135 degrees east longitude 01 minutes, 34 degrees north latitude 36 minutes), with a total length of 3911 meters and a main pier span of 1991 meters. The two main piers are 297 meters above sea level, 80 meters in diameter and 60 meters in water. Each of the two main cables is 4000 meters in diameter and 1.12 meters in diameter, consisting of 290 thin cables, weighing about 50,000 tons. Construction of the bridge began in May 1988. Completed in March 1998. The Mingshi Channel Bridge first adopted 1800 MPa super high strength steel wire, which reduced the diameter of main cable and simplified the connection structure. It was the first main cable of suspension bridge. It was also the first cross-valley suspension bridge (3) constructed by the method of pushing up, which was constructed by the French Eiffel Group Company.