>>6455905>a 102 mile span on Earth would have a 6990 foot dropThis isn't complicated math, folks. The drop would be just 62 feet. Say one side of the bridge was Point A and the other end of the bridge 102 miles away was Point B, and you drew a line through the earth from Point A to Point B. The halfway point would be 51.5 miles. From that midsection, draw a line up to the surface of the earth. That height would be about 62 feet. Pythagorean Theorem. Now, we are being sloppy with the 102 mile distance because the 102 miles the bridge is said to be is actually measured around the curvature of the earth and not from Point A to Point B. In reality, Point A to Point B is actually a bit shorter than 102 miles, which means the actual height (the so-called spherical drop in the pic) is even less than 62 feet.
