It takes a lot for a bridge to become world famous. The ones we all know – the Golden Gate, Sydney Harbour, Tower Bridge, etc – have all got something special: they’re super long, or super tall, or just very recognisable. China’s brand new Huajiang Canyon Bridge, however, might have what it takes.
Construction began only three years ago and, despite the magnitude of the project, the bridge is already ready for business. And this really is a mega-project – the bridge connects two mountains in the Guizhou region, is 1.8 miles long, and holds two world records. One for the longest distance between two towers on a mountain bridge, and for being the world’s highest bridge.
At 625m above the ground, the Huajiang Canyon Bridge dwarfs the previous title holder, the Millau Viaduct in southern France, which is a measly 343m high. But if anyone else wanted to challenge China by building something even taller, it would take a lot longer than three years for it to come to fruition.
An academic at Calgary University told the Telegraph that ‘in other parts of the world, a project of this scale would typically take five to 10 years from groundbreaking to completion’, adding that various ‘environmental, political, and logistical factors’ could get in the way of it even getting built. For instance, in the UK, it has taken the same length of time for a motorway bypass to be nearly-sort-of-almost complete.
Although this is a phenomenal feat of engineering, it won’t come as much of a surprise to those in the Guizhou region, where almost half of the planet’s 100 tallest bridges already reside. Once you’ve got the ‘bridge over insanely high canyon’ recipe down, it seems it’s pretty straightforward to copy and paste as much as you need to.
Once it opens fully later this month, the bridge will cut down an hour-long drive to 90 seconds. If you want to take in the views, there will be a café, a bar, a glass walkway and even bungee jumping for the most immersive canyon experience possible.
The overpass will open for cars first, with tourist attractions being phased in shortly after.
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