Nobody has walked across the Red Sea since Moses parted the waters. But it could happen again under an audacious plan to build the world’s longest suspension bridge between Africa and the Arabian Peninsula.If built, the bridge would cross the Red Sea at an 18-mile-wide strait known as the Bab al-Mandeb, or Gate of Tears, connecting the southern tip of Yemen with the tiny East African country of Djibouti. Estimated price tag: $10 billion to $20 billion.The proposal is turning heads in the Middle East, and not just because it would make engineering history. The developer of the project is a Dubai-based firm headed by Tarek bin Laden, an elder brother of the world’s most famous terrorist.The bin Laden family, from Saudi Arabia, has operated a construction empire for decades. In the mid-1990s, the clan cut its financial ties with Osama bin Laden, founder of al-Qaeda, around the time he declared war on the United States and called for the overthrow of the Saudi ruling family.Since then, the rest of the bin Ladens — Osama has 24 half brothers and 29 half sisters — have quietly gone on with their business. The Bab al-Mandeb bridge would be their most ambitious project to date, overshadowing their renovations of Islamic holy sites in the Saudi cities of Mecca and Medina.“This has been Sheik Tarek’s idea for many, many years,” said Jameel Murshed, a legal consultant for Middle East Development LLC, the partnership led by Tarek. “He wants to serve his mother country”.Government officials on both sides of the sea have given their blessing to the project, although details are still under negotiation.
