The world’s highest bridge opened last weekend, reportedly cutting a one-hour journey down to one minute. The Huajiang Grand Canyon Bridge smashed the Guinness World Records at 625 metres high when it opened on Sunday, September 28, in Guizhou, southwest China.
Twice as tall as the Shard in London, it also broke the record for the largest span bridge built in a mountainous area, stretching 2,890 metres (1.8 miles) across the Huajiang Grand Canyon, also known as the “earth crack”. Travel across the Huajiang Canyon previously took more than an hour by road, and local state media say the route will now take just over a minute by vehicle.
Construction began in January 2022, and the massive structure has taken more than three and a half years to complete high above a river in Guizhou Province.
The steel truss suspension bridge, which weighs around 22,000 tons, also has a high-speed glass elevator to take visitors to a coffee spot 2,600 feet above the river. Visitors can also bungee jump from a 1,900-foot-high glass walkway.
It is hoped the bridge will boost tourism and economic growth in the mountainous and rural area of China by cutting journey times and creating better connections in the region.
Before the bridge could be considered safe to welcome traffic, there was a five-day testing process, in which a team drove 96 trucks onto designated points in batches to test the structure’s integrity.
China broke its own record with this new bridge. The highest bridge Guinness World Record was previously held by the Beipanjiang Bridge (Duge Bridge) in China, which was 565.4 metres high. The records are measured between the deck and the surface below.