Guizhou: The world's tallest bridge opened to traffic Sunday morning in southwest China's Guizhou Province, significantly reducing travel time across a deep canyon from two hours to just two minutes after three years of construction.
According to Emirates News Agency, the Huajiang Grand Canyon Bridge, which towers 625 metres above the Beipan River in Guizhou's mountainous region, is almost nine times as tall as San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge. The bridge, with a main span of 1,420 metres, is now the world's longest-span steel truss girder suspension bridge in such terrain, as reported by Guizhou provincial authorities.
The bridge spans the Huajiang Grand Canyon, known as "the Earth's crack," and measures 2,890 metres in length. It is the latest addition to the rapidly developing infrastructure network of the world's second-largest economy. The former world's tallest bridge, also spanning the Beipan River, is located just over 100 km from the Huajiang Grand Canyon Bridge. Opened in 2016, the previous record-holder has a vertical clearance of 565.4 metres from the bridge deck to the river surface below.
Over the years, Guizhou, one of China's less developed provinces, has constructed more than 30,000 bridges in its mountainous terrain, including three of the world's tallest. The province is home to nearly half of the world's 100 tallest bridges.