World’s highest bridge to open to traffic in China’s mountainous southwest

A bridge described by Chinese state media as the world’s highest will open to traffic on Sunday in the mountainous southwestern province of Guizhou.

The suspension bridge, which took three years to build, crosses the Huajiang Grand Canyon and is intended to cut travel times across the gorge from two hours to just a few minutes, state news agency Xinhua reported.

Guizhou is already home to almost half the world’s 100 tallest bridges, and the latest project rises 625 metres (2,050ft) from the river below to its bridge deck.

This is about the same height as mainland China’s tallest skyscraper, the Shanghai Tower, and around 60 metres higher than the previous record holder, the Duge Bridge, which is about 200km (120 miles) away.

In crossing the Huajiang Grand Canyon – known as the “Earth’s crack” due to its incredibly deep and narrow gorge – the bridge is also set to become the longest mountain bridge in the world, with a total length of 2,890 metres.

Its main span is 1,420 metres – 10 metres longer than Britain’s Humber Bridge, which was the world’s longest single-span suspension bridge until 1998 – according to the website highestbridges.com.

  

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