Getty Image / Yang Wenbin/Xinhua
For anyone with a fear of heights a new nightmare just became a reality in China‘s Guizhou province. Already home to over 32,000 bridges, the Guizhou province was already home to nearly half of the 100 tallest bridges in the world but it can now lay claim to having the world’s tallest bridge.
The tallest bridge in the world was opened on Sunday, September 28th, and the Huajiang Canyon Bridge spans an area that used to take 1-2 hours for motorists and now connects them in just two minutes.
World’s Tallest Bridge Opens In China
The Huajiang Canyon Bridge is an absolute behemoth of a suspension bridge and a true marvel of engineering. I’m confident there will be entire docuseries devoted to teaching about the construction of this bridge.
It spans 4,659 feet from end to end and sits 2,051 feet above the canyon below. As a refresher, a mile is 5,280 feet.
Construction on the Huajiang Canyon Bridge first began back on the 18th of January in 2022. Load tests began on this bridge back in August and as you can see in the video below, it involved crews driving out onto pressure points of the bridge with heavy trucks. Surely there was a better way to test this, no?
Underneath the Huajiang Canyon Bridge flows the Beipan River but from 2,000+ feet above it has to look like rain trickling down a crack in the sidewalk. Everything from that high up looks minuscule.
With its opening on the 28th, it claimed the title of ‘world’s tallest bridge’ from another bridge in the sparsely populated Guizhou province in China. At this point they are really just competing among themselves. No other country on earth is trying to build bridges of this scale.
Building This Colossus
This clip from 10 months ago, leading up to the opening, broke down the monumental effort it took to bring the world’s tallest bridge to life. There’s no other choice here but to be impressed:
Can you imagine trying to get something like this done in the modern day United States? Never in a million years.