The Huajiang Grand Canyon Bridge, soaring 2,050 feet above the Beipan River in China’s Guizhou Province, opened to traffic on Sunday, claiming the title of the world’s tallest bridge and the largest span in a mountainous region, according to state media.
Stretching nearly 10,000 feet with a main span of about 5,000 feet, the bridge crosses the Huajiang Canyon, dwarfing the previous record holder, France’s Millau Viaduct, which sits 1,000 feet above the Tarn River. It also surpasses the Duge Bridge in Guizhou, now the world’s second-highest, and is more than twice as tall as the Royal Gorge Bridge in Colorado, the highest in the U.S. at 956 feet, and nearly nine times higher than the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco.
The bridge, completed in three years and eight months, cuts a two-hour drive across the canyon to just two minutes, connecting key tourist spots and boosting Guizhou’s ambition to become a world-class destination.
The bridge spans “earth’s crack,” as Zhang Shenglin, chief engineer of the Guizhou Highway Engineering Group Company, described it, per Fox News, adding that it “will showcase China’s engineering capabilities and boost Guizhou’s goal of becoming a world-class tourist destination.”
Hailed as an “infrastructure miracle,” the project is a part of the country’s poverty alleviation efforts. The Guizhou province, with a population of 40 million, now has more than 32,000 bridges either completed or under construction. Features of the Huajiang Grand Canyon Bridge include a high-speed glass elevator to a coffee spot 2,600 feet above the river, a 1,900-foot-high glass walkway, and bungee jumping for visitors.
Tian Hongrui, a technician on the project, expressed pride in the achievement, telling NBC News, “I felt proud to have left a mark.”
Mamdouh El-Badry, a civil engineering professor at the University of Calgary, noted that such a massive project would typically take five to 10 years, citing environmental, political, and logistical challenges.