China on Sunday opened the Huajiang Grand Canyon Bridge in southwest Guizhou province, a cable-supported span that stands 625 meters (2,051 feet) above the Beipan River and reduces a difficult canyon crossing from roughly two hours to about two minutes, according to Xinhua .
The 2,890-meter-long structure spans the Huajiang Grand Canyon—known locally as “the Earth’s crack”—with a main span of 1,420 meters. Guizhou provincial authorities said it is now the longest-span steel truss girder suspension bridge in mountainous terrain, as reported by Xinhua.
The new record surpasses a nearby Beipan River crossing opened in 2016 that has a vertical clearance of about 565 meters, provincial officials said, as reported by Xinhua. At 625 meters above the river, the Huajiang bridge rises to nearly nine times the height of San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge, according to the outlet.
Officials said the project took three years to complete and incorporated wind-resistance engineering and high-altitude construction methods that produced 21 authorized patents and informed national bridge standards, according to Xinhua. The transport department’s Zhang Yin called the span “a landmark project that showcases China’s innovation,” as quoted by Xinhua.
Construction teams worked through the canyon’s severe terrain using satellite navigation, drones, smart monitoring systems, and ultra-high-strength materials to achieve millimeter-level placement during installation at height, the outlet reported.
Guizhou, one of China’s less developed regions, has become a center of large-scale bridge building, with more than 30,000 bridges—including three of the world’s tallest—and nearly half of the globe’s 100 tallest bridges located in the province.
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