Textbook says imaginary Manx bridge 'third longest in world'

A Manx bridge has been named as the third longest in the world by a structural engineering textbook.

The Handbook of International Bridge Engineering says the span which links Liverpool to the Island is 82 miles long.

But there's just one problem - the bridge was invented as an April Fool joke by a Liverpool newspaper almost 10 years ago!

The Liverpool Echo said in 2008 the Alf Priolo bridge, an anagram of April Fool, would have linked the city's waterfront to Douglas when it opened in early 2015.

The textbook is used by thousands of civil engineering students around the world.