Posted on July 27, 2026
Progreso Pier extends 8 kilometers over the Gulf of Mexico, connects the coast to deep waters, and earns the Guinness record as the world’s largest.
On the coast of the Yucatán Peninsula, a port structure extends over the Gulf of Mexico until it practically disappears on the horizon. The Progreso Pier officially measures 8,018.98 meters in length, equivalent to just over 8 kilometers, and holds the record recognized by the Guinness World Records as the longest pier or wharf in the world.
The recognition was granted to the Municipality of Progreso on July 1, 2023. The official measurement transformed a port infrastructure built and expanded over decades into a world record holder, surpassing similar structures by the total distance covered between the coast and the docking areas.
The dimension is difficult to visualize just by the numbers. Considering a continuous path, the 8,018.98 meters are equivalent to approximately 80 football fields of 100 meters lined up or almost two and a half times the length of the Rio-Niterói Bridge over Guanabara Bay, whose total section is approximately 13 kilometers, but not entirely over a port platform of the same type.
The shallow sea forced engineers to advance kilometers beyond the coast
The colossal extension did not arise merely from the pursuit of a record. It was determined by the natural conditions of Progreso’s coastline, where the seabed remains shallow for an exceptionally long distance.
This characteristic prevented larger ships from approaching directly to the coast. To reach sufficient depth for port operations, it became necessary to take the infrastructure out to the open sea, creating a permanent link between the city and a zone capable of receiving vessels with greater draft.
