At more than twice the height of the Eiffel Tower, China’s newest bridge is an engineering spectacle. The Huajiang Grand Canyon Bridge, which opened in late September in Guizhou Province, connecting two huge cliffs, now holds the record as the tallest bridge on Earth.
Suspended about 2,050 feet above the Beipan River, the suspension bridge soars higher than the Shanghai Tower, China’s tallest building, if you measured it from the river below. Compared to the iconic Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco — which is just 220 feet above the water — the Huajiang structure feels almost like something out of another era in the future.
Canyon-Crossing Shortcut
Until now, crossing the canyon meant hours of switchback driving. The bridge cuts that trek down from two hours to about two minutes. As state media put it, the opening marks an “infrastructure miracle.”
The bridge stretches 4,600 feet, making it not just the tallest but also the longest bridge ever built in a mountainous region. It overshadows Colorado’s Royal Gorge Bridge, the tallest in the U.S. at 956 feet.
Technicians who worked on the project describe the experience as transformative. “Leaving now is bittersweet, but this isn’t the end,” said Tian Hongrui, a bridge technician. “It’s the start of a new chapter,” Tian told state-run broadcaster CCTV News.
That chapter involves more than just getting from point A to B. For Guizhou, a region once defined by rugged isolation, the new bridge is the culmination of a long push for connectivity with the rest of China.
A Path of Development
Guizhou has been on a three-decade building spree, creating more than 32,000 bridges since the 1980s. Back then, the province had fewer than 3,000. In 2016, the Duge Bridge — also in Guizhou — briefly held the title of world’s highest before being dethroned by its new sibling.
The Huajiang project may be its boldest yet, transforming one of China’s poorest regions into one of the most economically active.
Construction of the suspension bridge took nearly four years and required taming the gorge’s unstable karst foundations. To prove its strength, engineers rolled more than 90 heavy-duty trucks across its span in a dramatic load test.
But this is not just an artery for cars. A glass elevator shoots visitors up one of the towers to a coffee shop dangling 2,600 feet above the river. A glass walkway and bungee platform at 1,900 feet turn the vertigo-inducing scale into an attraction. Visitors can even stroll across a glass floor at the bridge’s new visitor center, peering straight down into the canyon.
Below you see some photos of the Huajiang Grand Canyon Bridge while it was still under construction, as shot by Eric Sakowski from HighestBridges.com.
