What rank is the Deer Isle bridge among the world's longest/largest? 
This is generally measured by the distance of the longest span. 
Thanks.

Hello, and thank you for your question.

The Deer Isle (or Deer Isle-Sedgwick) Bridge of Penobscot Bay, Maine,
is ranked among other suspension bridges at number 85.
"Major Suspension Bridges in the world" (Strait of Messina Bridge)
http://www.strettodimessina.it/pages/100ponti-e.html

The list in "Structural Steel Designer's Handbook" (by Roger L.
Brockenbrough and Frederick S. Merritt) ranks the Deer Isle bridge at
number 66 among other suspension bridges, but this list is only
inclusive up to 1997, and is therefore not as current as the first
list (above).
"100 Longest Suspension Bridges in the World" (Rutgers ASCE)
http://www.civeng.rutgers.edu/asce/suspension.html

Built in 1939 by Robinson & Steinman to cross the Eggemoggin Reach, it
has been retrofitted to correct a bit of "unwanted" swaying in the
wind. In fact, it is  infamous for this tendency and is grouped among
other "engineering failures."
Suspended Animation: The Tacoma Narrows Bridge (by Jason Zasky,
Failure Magazine)
http://www.failuremag.com/arch_science_tacomanarrows.html

More information and photos of the Deer Isle bridge can be found at
http://users.erols.com/ddenenberg/imgpage/deer.htm.


Additional resources:

Analysis of Wind and Wind Effects Revisited: A Case Study of Deer
Isle-Sedgwick Bridge (National Institute of Standards and Technology)
http://fire.nist.gov/bfrlpubs/build98/art107.html

David Steinman (The Civil Engineering Portal)
http://www.icivilengineer.com/Famous_Engineers/Steinman/


Search strategy:

"deer isle bridge" span
"deer isle" bridge rank
list "suspension bridges"
"deer isle" bridge failure


Hope this helps!
-- mother-ga

Wow!  What an amzaingly thorough answer!  The best $5 I've ever spent!