Each storage in the game (building and vehicle) is defined by a storage type, which determines what resources can be held there, and a "generic tonnage," which with a resource's "density" stat determines how many tons of the resource can actually be stored there.

Generic tonnage should be thought of as a theoretical capacity that combines tonnage and volume, while density relates how much a resource can utilize it. For example, the 800 ton grain silo has a generic tonnage of 1000 tons, but since crops have a density stat of 80%, only 800 tons of crops can be stored there.

Some resources will have different densities depending on the storage type. For example, metal scrap has a density of 100% while in "waste" type storages and a density of 60% in "aggregate" type storages. Most resources only have one density though.

The game tends to round numbers down to two or three digits for display in menus and windows, so the actual capacity for a resource may not be displayed accurately for vehicles. Storage buildings always report numbers to the hundredths of tons.

The most accurate displays for a vehicle's capacity can be found in three places depending on the cargo tonnage and/or the vehicle's weight:

• Under 1 tons of cargo capacity, weight can be read most accurately in the vehicle's menu to the hundredths.
  
• With cargo capacity above 1 ton and vehicle weight below 20 tons, the cargo capacity will only be shown in a vehicle's window up to tenths or just whole numbers, but numbers down to the hundredths can be derived by subtracting the vehicle's empty weight from its current weight (as listed in the vehicle's window) to see how much cargo it has loaded.
  
• Over 20 tons, a vehicle's weight and cargo will only be shown as an integer, but the "List of Vehicles and Buildings" will display its cargo's weight to the tenths.

For more accurate capacities, you can always look up the generic tonnage of a building or vehicle in its config/script (.ini) file and multiply it by the cargo's density.


*When carried by general cargo ships (not container type), cableways, or aircraft.
**The only livestock type specific vehicle I know of is the train wagon for livestock.
***Aircraft, non-container type general cargo ships (and the Frida), and non-garbage cable cars cannot carry plastic waste.
ºNuclear material is always stored in containers or buildings. No vanilla vehicle can carry them.

Mixed waste is simply a combination of any of the waste types except hazardous waste. If hazardous waste is mixed with other waste types, then the entire mix will also be called "hazardous waste."

Currently mixed waste and hazardous mixed waste have a density of 100% and can only be stored and carried in "Waste" type storages.

Throughput and Fuel Economy are a main focus of this guide, so understanding what they are is crucial for getting the most out of this guide.

Throughput is a rough measure for a vehicle's overall transportation capacity and is defined here as the product of a vehicle's capacity and speed. For example, the Lubbenau (an aggregate ship) can carry 8,250 tons at 35 km/hr, so it has a throughput of: 8,250 tons × 35 km/hr = 288,750 ton-km/hr.

The main use of throughput is to compare which vehicle is better for moving large amounts of resources or riders over time, regardless of the distance. A vehicle that is half as fast but carries twice as much as another vehicle will have the same throughput.

For example, the Volgobalt carries 2,580 generic tons and goes 28 km/hr, while the Frida goes 45 km/hr but only carries 1,750 generic tons; which has more throughput?

• Volgobalt: 2,580 tons × 28 km/hr = 72,240 ton-km/hr.
  
• Frida: 1,750 tons × 45 km/hr = 78,750 ton-km/hr.

Both are pretty similar, but the Frida is slightly better, especially since it only costs ~85% of the Volgobalt's cost. The Volgobalt is available much earlier though.


Throughput is not a constant for each vehicle though, it can be reduced through a few ways:
• Density - Throughput is reduced when carrying lower density goods.
• Partial Loads - Throughput is reduced when vehicles carry less than their maximum capacity.
• Speed Restrictions - Throughput is reduced when going slower.

The throughputs listed in this guide assume the vehicle is travelling at its maximum speed with a full load of 100% density goods, but you can calculate the reduced throughput by simply multiplying the listed throughput by each percentage of density, capacity used, and current speed:
A = T × D% × L% × S%, where:
• A = the adjusted throughput.
• T = the listed or calculated maximum throughput.
• D% = the density percentage of the resource being carried.
• L% = the percentage of the vehicle's capacity for a resource that is being used.
• S% = the percentage of the vehicle's top speed that the vehicle is currently going at.

For example, the Frida has a throughput of 78,750 ton-km/hr with a full load of steel, but when carrying half a load of food, it only gets 19,687.5 ton-km/hr.


Fuel economy is basically how much fuel is needed to move so much stuff so far; essentially it is a vehicle's throughput divided by its fuel consumption rate. Since both throughput and fuel consumption are rates based on time, dividing one by the other gets rid of the time aspect and the result is the amount of fuel required to move so much stuff/people so far.

Good fuel economies are important for keeping the cost of transportation down, especially for goods with slim margins like construction materials and low tier aggregates.


Since fuel economy scales with throughput, it is affected by the same factors as well. The fuel economies listed in this guide assume the vehicle is travelling at its maximum speed with a full load of 100% density goods, but like for throughput, you can calculate reduced fuel economies by simply multiplying the listed throughput by each percentage of density, capacity used, and current speed:
A = T × D% × L% × S%, where:
• A = the adjusted fuel economy.
• T = the listed or calculated maximum fuel economy.
• D% = the density percentage of the resource being carried.
• L% = the percentage of the vehicle's capacity for a resource that is being used.
• S% = the percentage of the vehicle's top speed that the vehicle is currently going at.

For example, the Frida has a fuel economy of 7,663.40 ton-m/Liter with a full load of steel, but when carrying half a load of food, it only gets 1,915.85 ton-m/Liter.


The effect of partial loads on fuel economy is probably the second biggest reason to buy smaller vehicles (lower vehicle prices is the first), as a partial load can degrade a vehicle's fuel economy below the fuel economy of a smaller vehicle. For example, the ~18,000 ruble Mi-4 only has a fuel economy of 26.453 ton-m/Liter and a tiny capacity of 1.5 tons, which the 95,000+ ruble Mi-10 cargo helicopter could only carry with a measly 6.648 ton-m/Liter fuel economy despite getting 57.617 ton-m/Liter with its full load of 13 tons.

Smaller vehicles are not always better with smaller loads though. For example, the S62 cargo helicopter has a fuel economy of 30.662 ton-m/Liter and a maximum cargo capacity of 9 tons, but the Mi-10 cargo helicopter can carry 9 tons with a fuel economy of 39.889 ton-m/Liter and any smaller load with more fuel economy than the S62 cargo helicopter can.

Which stats matter and why:
• Weight - Only aircraft with an empty weight below 10 tons can use dirt runways.
• Length - Airplanes cannot visit or be bought at pads of a lower size than their length.
• Takeoff distance - This is the minimum runway length needed to take off and land.
• Capacity - How many riders or generic tons it can carry.
• Speed - How fast it goes.
• Throughput - The multiple of the number of tons/riders it can carry times its speed.
• Fuel economy - How efficiently it uses fuel.

Airplanes that weigh less than 10 tons can land on and take off from dirt runways without an ATC tower. The building they visit doesn't seem to matter either.

Engine power determines fuel consumption, but it and width do not seem to affect plane behavior much so they are not listed here. Engine power can be found in the "List of vehicles and buildings" if you really want to know; same for the production years.

Cost is also not recorded because this can also be looked up in the "List of vehicles and buildings." Keep in mind that the displayed cost is the money you get for selling a used vehicle with maintenance turned off, but you can easily convert this to the price to buy a new one by simply dividing it by 0.7.


All aircraft are sorted by takeoff distance.

Airplanes that can operate on dirt runways without ATC towers are listed here.

*r-kph is riders-km/hr, t-kph is ton-km/hr.
**r-m/L is riders-meter per liter, t-m/L is ton-meter per liter.

These airplanes require a paved runway and a working ATC tower.

*These planes are inferior to the AN-12 and the IL-76 respectively.
The only reason to buy/build them is to have a pretend ASW air force.

**From the Ukraine DLC, it can also carry vehicles and containers.

These airplanes require paved runways and a working ATC tower.

*r-kph is riders-km/hr, t-kph is ton-km/hr.
**r-m/L is riders-meter per liter, t-m/L is ton-meter per liter.


1 ton of fuel = 1,000 liters (in real life this would be closer to 1,300 liters).

Airplane fuel capacity = Engine power × 0.52 liters per kW

Airplane fuel consumption rate (liters per second)
= Engine power (in kW) × Engine rpm ÷ (2,145 kW-sec per liter of fuel)
(At cruising speeds, RPM will be 60%.)

Airplane fuel economy when cruising (in ton-meter per liter or rider-meter per liter)
= 993.0555556 ÷ Engine rating (in kW) × Capacity (tons or riders) × Speed (in km/hr).

Since 1 ton of fuel = 1,000 liters:
• 1 ton-meter per liter equals 1 ton-km per ton of fuel
• 1 rider-meter per liter equals 1 rider-km per ton of fuel

Which stats matter and why:
• Speed - How fast it goes.
• Capacity - How many riders or generic tons it can carry.
• Throughput - The multiple of the number of tons/riders it can carry times its speed.
• Fuel economy - How efficiently it uses fuel.
• Airlift ability - can the helicopter carry vehicles and containers?

Unlike planes, helicopters can take off from any aircraft pad, including airplane pads.

Also unlike planes, helicopters have to slow down when changing elevation, which it will usually do a lot of while flying over hilly terrain.

Sorted by name.


*Since this is a western vehicle, you can sell it to the east for a lot of money than eastern vehicles typically will get. For example, the G-31 can sell for over 64,000 rubles or $27,000 while the similar Mi-4 only gets 18k rubles or a pitiful $2,600.

1 ton of fuel = 1,000 liters (in real life this would be closer to 1,300 liters).

Helicopter fuel tank size (liters) = 2.6 × Engine power rating (in kW).

Helicopter fuel consumption rate (liters/sec) = Engine rating (in kW) × Engine RPM ÷ 429
(At cruising speeds, RPM will be 99%.)

Helicopter fuel economy (in ton-meter per liter or rider-meter per liter)
= 119.156­­5656 ÷ Engine rating (in kW) × Capacity (tons or riders) × Speed (in km/hr).

Since 1 ton of fuel = 1,000 liters:
• 1 ton-meter per liter equals 1 ton-km per ton of fuel
• 1 rider-meter per liter equals 1 rider-km per ton of fuel

With the requisite research complete, helicopters can be employed in fire fighting or as ambulances. The range they can cover buildings up to is 3 km from the center of the fire station or hospital (not from the pad).

Fire fighting helicopters also need a viable source of water within ~2.5 km to fetch water from. If you mouse over the menu of the fire station the helicopter is stationed at, viable water sources will have blue dots displayed on them:

This will also highlight any buildings within the coverage range in green.

Helicopter bucket size determines the size of fire the helicopter can effectively fight. The Mi-2 has the smallest bucket, but it can reliably put out fires at pump jacks, woodcutting posts, and small apartments, but it is wholly inadequate for larger buildings. The Mi-10 has the largest bucket, but it struggles to put out the largest buildings on its own.


Now that helicopters can be dispatched to any building, and since earthquakes can start a lot of fires in an area, you might want a group of helicopters that you can send to assist an area hit hard by an earthquake. The Mi-10 is well suited for this as it is pretty fast and has the largest bucket.

There are only two factors to consider for ambulance helicopters:

• Speed - Citizens in critical condition only have so long to live, and a faster helicopter needs less of that time to get them to the hospital, but due to the limited range of ambulance helicopters (3 km), even the slowest helicopter can usually collect the patient in time. Still, a helicopter that can go faster will be available more often to save other patients.
  
  
• Cost - Ambulance helicopters will only ever have one rider in them (the patient), so there is no point in getting a helicopter with more room for riders. Smaller helicopters are usually a lot cheaper (the Mi-2 was basically made for this), but they also tend to be slower than bigger helicopters.

All ships are sorted by height.

Which stats matter and why:
• Length - Docks and harbors have a "Maximum ship's length" that docking ships cannot exceed.
• Height - Ships must be so short to reliably cross under bridges.
• Width - Ships must be so thin to reliably cross under bridges.
• Speed - How fast ships go.
• Capacity - How much they can hold.
• Carries vehicles? - Can it haul vehicles and containers?
• Throughput - Overall transportation capability.
• Fuel economy - How efficiently it uses fuel.

The "Maximum ship's length" of a harbor or dock can be found in its popup card in the construction menu. For docks, this also determines which ships can be purchased there.

Ships seem to prefer moving along the cardinal axes (including the diagonal axes like NW or SE) instead of going in a straight line towards their next stop. If they encounter a coastline, then they will happily grind their hull against the shore without any ill effects in an effort to match the closest axis they can.

With cheats enabled and a ship selected, you can press the "h" key to display the navigable waters it can traverse, though this may not work when docking. Pressing the "x" key displays the points along a ship's intended path.

Unfortunately, ship speeds are not accurately displayed in this game. This is mostly due to rounding errors, as most of the time 1 knot = 1 m/s = 3.6 km/hr, but not all ships adhere to this (like the Lubbenau). The actual ship speeds in km/hr can be found in their .ini files though, and are recorded below.

All passenger ships are listed here.

*This ferry is part of the Ukraine DLC.

Both aggregate ships are listed here.


All ships that carry liquids are listed here.


Ships that can carry covered-hull, open-hull, dry-bulk, and refrigerated goods are listed here.

*This ship can also carry vehicles and containers.
**This ship is disabled (cannot be bought nor made) and can only carry covered hull goods.

The capacity, throughput, and fuel economy for open-hull goods are listed here for container ships.

*The Container Liner can only carry vehicles and containers.



Ship fuel tank size (liters) = Engine rating (in kW) × 5.2

Ship fuel consumption rate (liters/sec) = Engine rating (in kW) × Engine RPM ÷ 21,440

Ship fuel economy (in ton-meter per liter or rider-meter per liter)
= 99.2592593 ÷ Engine rating (in kW) × Capacity (tons or riders) × Speed (in km/hr).

Since 1 ton of fuel = 1,000 liters:
• 1 ton-meter per liter equals 1 ton-km per ton of fuel
• 1 rider-meter per liter equals 1 rider-km per ton of fuel.

The capacity, throughput, and fuel economy for various configurations of containers are listed here for each ship that can carry containers.

To get the configurations below with mixed container loadouts, you need one loading stop for each size of container, and the largest ones must be loaded first.

Configurations are sorted by the number of containers they have.

This section lists more specific figures for the various vanilla containers, from the amount of goods they can store, their relative loading speeds, and other data that is useful for planning purposes.

• Slightly smaller than the 10 ft container (0.5 TEU), but slightly larger than the Cask Type B.
  (a Skd 706 RTTN can carry 3 of these for example.)
  
• Cannot be stacked.
  
• Tare weight of 2.70 tons.
  
• Capacity of 0.75 tons.
  
• Can only contain UF6.

• Seemingly slightly smaller than the 10 ft container (0.5 TEU) and the Container Type 30B.
  (cargo helicopters can carry three 10' shipping containers, but only two of these casks)
  
• Cannot be stacked.
  
• Tare weight of 4.5 tons.
  
• Capacity of 0.2 tons.
  
• Can only contain nuclear fuel and nuclear waste.

Shipping Containers in W&R:SR follow the Twenty-foot Equivalent Unit (TEU) system of Europe and the USA (which is why containers are a western "vehicle"), which classifies container sizes as multiples of twenty feet: 10' is 0.5 TEU, 20' is 1 TEU, and 40' is 2 TEU. In real life, and in this game apparently, the actual lengths of shipping containers do not match their namesakes.



Tare Weight - The empty weight of the container. Useful only for computing vehicle acceleration.

Tonnage per TEU - This is the generic tonnage available in a container before a good's density stat is taken into account, divided by its length or volume in TEU. Effectively for all goods, the 1 TEU container packs the most goods per space and the 2 TEU container packs the least (though still respectable) tonnage per space.

Un/packing Rate - The rough maximum possible rate at 100% worker productivity. For planning, it is generally safer to assume the actual rate is a bit under this.

Relative Loading Time Multiple - The number of containers loaded and unloaded is a flat rate that is only affected by the vehicle loading or unloading factor of the building. Since each shipping container takes the exact same time to load or unload, it is the number of containers that will determine how long it takes for a vehicle to load or unload a full load. Thus for the same amount of space, 10' containers take twice as long as 20' containers, which take twice as long as 40' containers, to load and unload.

The rate at which containers are loaded on and offloaded off vehicles depends solely on the un/loading facility's loading and unloading factor, which can be found in the .ini file of the building.

Vehicles are loaded simultaneously at this rate, which is not divided among vehicles, but simply applied equally. Trains load and offload containers even faster because each wagon is treated as a separate vehicle at the facility.

In any event, the fewer containers there are to handle, the less time it will take to load or unload them, which is the chief advantage of using the 40' containers over the 20' (though the reduced tonnage erases this advantage a bit.)

Nuclear casks are packed and unpacked without workers seemingly instantly, so long as room is available.

At shipping container packing and unpacking facilities, the rate at which packing and unpacking occurs at depends on a few factors:

• Number of workers - More workers, up to sixty, results in a faster rate.
  
• Productivity of workers - More productive workers result in a faster rate, even at full employment.
  
• Does packing stop to pull goods via direct factory connections into the packing facility?*
  • No - Then the maximum packing rate is reachable.
    
  • Yes - Stopping to pull goods will slow the rate. Because of the throughput limit on pulling goods through direct factory connections, goods that are more "dense" (crops, fabrics) will suffer a lower packing rate because more time will be spent pulling goods instead of packing them.

*If there are fewer tons of goods in a packing facility's warehouse than the capacity of the selected shipping container, then packing will stop until enough goods are pulled/unloaded into the building.

Note that unpacking facilities never stop to push goods into other storages.

10' Containers can be carried by the most vehicles and are needed to maximize the carrying capacities of some vehicles. For a given amount of cargo, they are terribly slow to load and unload onto vehicles compared to other shipping containers.

20' Containers have the highest tonnage to space ratio of all the shipping containers and so are best for maximizing the capacity of buildings and vehicles holding them.

40' Containers are the fastest to load spaces up with thanks to their footprint, but they pay for it with the lowest (if still respectable) tonnage of goods per container volume. Still, they can load and then unload over 7000 tons of crops in less than 5 minutes, while 20' containers take about 7.3 minutes, and 10' containers take about 18 minutes. Use them for shorter runs where loading and unloading speed is more of a limiting factor.

The game only displays 2 significant figures when listing the weights of goods per full container at the packing facility, which are not accurate enough when trying to convert the capacities of container storage yards and ships from number of containers to tons of goods.

Here are the actual tonnage capacities for each shipping container:

You can estimate the tonnage of goods held in a container storage space by multiplying the number of containers by the tonnage of goods per container. You can find the number of containers each storage space can hold in the next section.

This section lists the various numbers of shipping containers and nuclear casks that various vehicles and storage buildings can hold. Some lists do not include nuclear casks due to the large amount I would need to generate to fill the capacities they list.

Space for shipping containers per building:

• Container packing facilities - two storage lots:
  • Lot 1 - 3 layers of 5 rows of 3 TEU
    
  • Lot 2 - 3 layers of 6 rows of 8 TEU
• Small space for vehicles/containers - 2 layers of 5 rows of 6 TEU.
  
• Largo space for vehicles/containers - 4 layers of 7 rows of 12 TEU.
  
• Container Harbor - 4 layers of 22 rows of 10 TEU
  
• Car Dealership - Cannot hold containers.

Divide the lengths by whatever size of container you want to store there to get the number of containers in a row. If you don't get an integer, round down to an integer.

Space for shipping containers per Ship:

• Ighnatov - Three layouts:
  • 40 forty foot containers and 8 twenty foot containers (max unloading & loading speed).
    
  • 88 twenty foot containers (maximum tonnage).
    
  • 168 ten foot containers (vastly inferior to other options, don't use it if possible).
  
  
• Frida - Three layouts:
  • 45 forty foot containers and 15 twenty foot containers (max unloading & loading speed).
    
  • 105 twenty foot containers (maximum tonnage).
    
  • 195 ten foot containers (vastly inferior to other options, don't use it if possible).
  
  
• Container Express - Two convenient layouts:
  • 315 forty foot containers and 45 ten foot containers (much quicker to unload and load).
    
  • 630 twenty foot containers (maximum tonnage).
  
  
• Container Liner - Two convenient layouts:
  • 1184 twenty foot containers and 45 ten foot containers (maximum tonnage)
    
  • 592 forty foot containers and 90 ten foot containers (much faster to load and unload)
    
    You cannot replace the 90 ten foot containers with 45 twenty foot containers, for some reason.

The astute among you may spot the disparate TEU totals of the given layouts. This may be because containers are not exact multiples of each other, or because the game allows the last container in a row to overhang the end of the row to a degree. Either way, different combinations of containers lead to different amounts of TEU used, as is seen below with the layouts of the Frida:

https://gtm.you1.cn/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2884870013

Space for containers per Wagon:

• Open wagon 13-401 - 2 TEU, 5 Cask Type B, or 4 Container Type 30B
  
• Open wagon 13-926 - 3 TEU, 7 Cask Type B, or 6 Container Type 30B
  
• Open wagon 13-4012 - 0 TEU (it cannot carry containers nor vehicles for some reason)

.
Space for containers per Helicopter:

• Mi-10 Cargo - 1.5 TEU, or 2 Nuclear Cask Type B, or 4 Container Type 30B. It looks like it should be able to hold 6 Container Type 30B, but it refuses to load more than 4.
  (More acceleration, faster over hilly terrain, better fuel economy.)
  
  
• S62 Skycrane - 1.5 TEU or 2 Nuclear Cask Type B, or 3 Container Type 30B
  (Kind of inferior.)

Vanilla airplanes cannot carry containers, but there is a Ukraine DLC airplane that can.

Trucks are listed here for specific containers as an aid to selecting suitable trucks for sorting containers by their sizes. You can check if a truck can carry a specific container by the two methods discussed in the previous section.

Trucks that can carry one 0.5 TEU Shipping Container, but not Nuclear Cask Type B's:

• GZ-53, Zil-130

Trucks that can only carry one 0.5 TEU Shipping Container or one Nuclear Cask Type B:

• W50 (no trailer), MZ 503, Skd 706 RT (not RTTN), U377, Je300, zil-133 w/ crane, kmz 5320 with crane, T138, T148.

Trucks that can carry 2 TEU containers:

• kmz 5410 (this truck can carry two 1 TEU containers or one 2 TEU and 1 0.5 TEU container at a time, so you cannot use it to separate 2 TEU and 0.5 TEU containers).

The remaining trucks can carry a 1 TEU container.

Bridges are useful for extending networks over rough terrain & water and to minimize the slope of a road or railway, but ensuring ships can pass under them depends on a few factors.

There are three dimensions to consider when it comes to bridges:

• The Maximum Span - This is the longest length that the bridge's pillars can be separated by.
  (The game displays this in the bridge selection menu).
  
  
  .
  
• The Normal Span - This is the default length that bridge pillars are separated by. Because you cannot influence the span length over water, this span also limits which ships can pass under.
  (The game displays the 'normal span' as "width" when using the measurement tool.)
  
  There is a table in the next section that lists the Normal Spans for each bridge type. Note that many bridges' deck elements will not be stretched to match pillar distances beyond the normal span, which may ruin how they look.
  
  
  .
  
• Height - This also determines whether ships can pass under bridges and whether roads, railways, footpaths, and whether other infrastructure can be built under it.
  (This is also displayed by the measurement tool.)
  
  
• Pedestrian Bridges are the exception, as they do not need pillars to support them, and even if they did, ships just pass through them anyway. Their height still matters for clearance over roads, railways, and other infrastructure though.

There are two types of clearances to consider when it comes to bridges:

• Ships - Width and height are the factors that determine whether a ship can pass under a bridge:
  • The ship's width needs to be 5m less than the Normal span of the bridge.
    (Use the measurement tool to confirm a bridge has a Normal span at least 5m wider than the ships you want to use before building it.)
    
    
  • The ship's height needs to be 2m less than the height of the bridge.
    (Less clearance is doable, but not guaranteed, especially with sloping bridges.)
    
    
  • If you build your bridges at least 25m high with a span of 30m, most of the ships you may want will be able to go under them.
    
    
  • The wooden and brick bridges can be passed under only by the Moskvich motor ship. Every other vanilla boat is too wide.
    
    
    .
    
  • Although there are strict requirements for ships to pass under bridges, ships will not actually maneuver to pass between the bridge's supports; instead, they will simply phase through them as if they were not there.
  
  
• Infrastructure Clearance - Height is usually the limiting factor.
  • Roads and Railways need about 8m between the ground and the bridge.
    (The power lines of electric railways will clip into the bridge above. This can be avoided with about 15m of clearance).
    
    
  • Footpaths need less clearance, but not much less.
    
    
  • If infrastructure is placed/built before the bridge is placed/planned, then the pillars can be moved away to make room, but only up to the maximum span length.
    
    
  • Most buildings cannot be built under bridges, nor can bridges be built over most buildings.

You can use the "Tool for measurement" to see how high a bridge is and how long a span stretches, including when it is still in the planning mode. Just ensure the tool for measurement is active and then mouse over the bridge or the ground under it.


.
There are some limitations involved with building bridges:

• The end points of a bridge segment can only be built up to 35m above the ground, but the rest of the bridge can be at any height over the ground. (Pedestrian bridges can be built much higher).
  
  You can build bridges higher than 35m by raising the ground up where you plan to place the endpoints of the bridge. This lets you build bridges above the tallest vanilla ship (the Vikki Tanker, at 43m).
  
  
• The end points of bridge segments cannot be built over water; they have to end over land.
  
  
  .
  
• You have to start the bridge segment at a node or on the ground. The only exception to this, is to build a road or bridge, enable the "Near Snap (f4)" feature, and then place the bridge near it.
  
  
  .
  
• Signs and train signals can only be placed on the nodes that connect bridge segments together.
  (You can see them by pressing H; they show up as a purple dot.)
  
  To create these nodes, you must plan separate portions of the bridge like so:
  • Place a bridge segment and then confirm construction (with the crane button on the bottom right). If you add on to this segment without confirming construction, the game will merge the segments together and a node will not be created.
    
  • Then plan the next section onto the first segment and again confirm construction.
    
  • Repeat until your bridge is completely placed.
    
    Keep in mind that you cannot end segments over the water and that each segment must be built separately.
  
  .
  
• Curves - Some bridges can support curves, but most cannot. This is also recorded in the next section.
  
  
• Symmetric Bridges - If you enable "Near Snap (f4)," then any bridges you place next to each other will attempt to synchronize the bridge pillars. This doesn't work for curved bridges though and height is also not synchronized.
  
  

All bridge stats are listed here.


*Pillars are usually built apart at the distance of the 'normal span,' but this distance can be increased up to the 'max span' length. For ships, use the 'normal span' distance to check if a ship's width will fit between pillars.

I would have just posted links to these guides, but parts are outdated, slightly incorrect, or do not go in depth enough for my liking. Still, their authors deserve some credit.
https://gtm.you1.cn/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2611490715
https://www.reddit.com/r/Workers_And_Resources/comments/tsxda0/an_intermediate_guide_to_container_handling_and/

https://gtm.you1.cn/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2891866932