Then, in 2011, a competing claim from China threatened to dethrone the nearly 24-mile bridge from first place. But the causeway didn’t go down without a fight.
As New Orleans expanded in the 1940s and 1950s, access to the north of the city became a problem.
Going around the lake from the east or west took too much time, so plans were drawn up to create a direct connection across the center of the lake to its northern shore. In 1955, the Louisiana Bridge Company was created to carry out the construction project. 
The second span was only about 15 meters longer than the first, but it was enough to attract the attention of the Guinness Book of Records (first published in 1955).
The controversy quickly died down when Guinness sensibly decided to create two new categories. 
The Lake Pontchartrain Causeway became the “longest bridge over water (continuous)”, while the Jiaozhou Bay Bridge became the “longest bridge over water (aggregate)”. And while the Jiaozhou Bay Bridge has since lost its title to the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge, opened in October 2018, the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway remains the world’s longest (continuous) bridge over water, more than 60 years after the completion of its original span.
Even experienced drivers and motorists are afraid to cross this bridge