The soon-to-open Huajiang Canyon Bridge in China is a towering feat of engineering that is set to slash journey times and attract tourists.
The $300 million bridge, which will connect Liuzhi and Anlong, in Ghizou, dwarfs its rivals to stand 625 metres (2,051 feet) above the canyon floor. That makes it higher than the Burj Khalifa tower in Dubai and nine times higher than the Golden Gate Bridge. The mass of metal in its construction is said to weigh 22,000 tonnes, or more than two Eiffel Towers. Spanning almost three kilometres in total the main suspended part of the bridge is 1,420 metres in length and its towers rise 260 metres high above the road deck.
Construction began in January 2022 and, less than three years later, the bridge will open to traffic. A journey that used to take over an hour over treacherous, winding roads, will be cut to just over one minute.
It’s not just the bridge itself that’s a marvel of modern building techniques for the approach road literally cuts a mountain in half. The Huajiang Canyon project is more than just a bridge, it’s “A giant leap in our collective technological abilities,” says Simon Whistler of YouTube’s Mega Projects. Check out the video below to find out more.
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