World's highest bridge opens in China

Would you be brave enough to cross this bridge that touches the clouds?

It's called the Huajiang Grand Canyon Bridge and is now officially open to the public.

The structure stretches above a gorge in the Guizhou province in southwest China, and towers at 625m (2,050ft). That's twice as tall as the Shard in London!

It has now set the record for both the world's highest bridge and largest span bridge built in a mountainous area.

Why was it built?

Huajiang Grand Canyon is sometimes called the 'Earth crack'

The Guizhou province is a mountainous region of China, which means travelling between areas can take a really long time.

Before the bridge was built, crossing this mountainous canyon took around one hour of driving around winding roads. But with the new structure, it's expected to cut the long journey to around just one minute.

China has a reputation for building massive bridges like this, and is on a nationwide push to improve infrastructure, especially in relatively underdeveloped mountainous areas like Guizhou.

It's because it will help increase connectivity between cities and lower transportation costs for businesses.

How was it built?

It's taken over hree and a half years to build the massive structure, with construction starting back in January 2022.

The steel truss suspension bridge weighs around a whopping 22,000 tons, which is as much as three Eiffel Towers!

To make sure the bridge is safe, there was a five day testing process in August.

A team drove 96 trucks onto designated points to test the bridge's structural integrity.

It was the the final assessment before the structure was considered safe to welcome traffic.