Every Record Must Fall – An Update on the Largest Arches in the World

By Grant Willis

Landscape Arch, Arches National Park. Photo by Jeremy Gleason.

In the May 2009 issue of Survey Notes, we reported that Landscape Arch in Arches National Park was the natural arch with the largest measured span in the world. This was based on the work of the Natural Arch and Bridge Society (NABS), a small group dedicated to finding, measuring, and classifying natural arches (www.naturalarches.org). However, there are always obscure parts of the world where a larger arch could hide.

Only about a year after NABS posted official measurements of Utah’s Landscape and Kolob Arches, a NABS group traveled into an area of rugged karst topography in southeast China. There, they measured two exceptionally large bridges formed by the dissolution and undercutting of limestone (karsting). Both of these are massive structures deep in the rugged Guangxi Province of southeast China. Fairy Bridge has an incredible span of 400 feet. Jiangzhou Immortal Bridge is less accurately measured at 280 to 340 feet, relegating Landscape Arch to 2nd or 3rd place—for now. Other behemoths could remain hidden in some side canyon of this rugged terrain.

Though Landscape Arch doesn’t have the longest measured span of any type of natural arch, it holds the record for sandstone arches and for “arc-type” arches, and with its thin ribbon of gravity-defying sandstone, many would agree that it is the most awe-inspiring arch in the world.

The May 2009 article generated questions regarding the definitions of “arch” and “bridge.” Some people view “arches” and “bridges” as two separate kinds of features. However, NABS, the only organization that I know of that deals with such matters in a scientifically rigorous way, states that a natural bridge is a type of natural arch, and that when comparing span length, bridges are included with all other types of natural arches.

Top Fourteen Arches in the World 2012 (from Natural Arch and Bridge Society website at www.naturalarches.org). NABS now recognizes 14 arches with spans over 200 feet. Expect this list to change again as searches continue.

Rank	Name	Type/Lithology	Location	Span Length
1	Fairy Bridge	meander natural bridge in karsted limestone	Buliu River, Guangxi, China	400 ft
2, 3, or 4	Jiangzhou Immortal Bridge	meander natural bridge in karsted limestone	Jiangzhou, Guangxi, China	280–340 ft
2 or 3	Landscape Arch	arc natural arch in sandstone	Arches National Park, Utah	290 ft
3 or 4	Kolob Arch	alcove natural arch in sandstone	Zion National Park, Utah	287 ft
5	Aloba Arch	buttress arch and meander natural bridge in sandstone	Ennedi Range, Chad (Sahara Desert)	250 ft
6	Morning Glory Natural Bridge	alcove natural arch in sandstone	Negro Bill Canyon, near Moab, Utah	243 ft
7	Gaotun Natural Bridge	waterfall natural bridge in karsted limestone	Bazhou He Scenic Area, Guizhou, China	240 ft
8	Rainbow Bridge	meander natural bridge in sandstone	Rainbow Bridge National Monument, Utah	234 ft
9	Sipapu Natural Bridge	meander natural bridge in sandstone	Natural Bridges National Monument, Utah	225 ft
10	Stevens Arch	shelter arch in sandstone	Escalante River, Utah	220 ft
11	Shiptons Arch (Tushuk Tash)	? in conglomerate	Near Kashgar, Xinjiang, China	214 ft
12	Hazarchishma Natural Bridge	meander natural bridge in karsted limestone	Bamyan Province, Afghanistan	211 ft
13	Outlaw Arch	alcove arch in sandstone	Dinosaur National Monument, Colorado	206 ft
14	Snake Bridge	meander natural bridge or alcove arch in sandstone	Sanostee, New Mexico	204 ft