The Huajiang Grand Canyon Bridge in Guizhou province, Southwest China, opened to traffic Sunday morning, reducing a journey that once took two hours across the deep canyon to just two minutes.
The landmark structure soars 625 meters above the Beipan River, making it nearly nine times taller than San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge.
Spanning 2,890 meters in length with a main span of 1,420 meters, the bridge has become the world’s longest-span steel truss girder suspension bridge in mountainous terrain, according to provincial authorities.
It crosses the Huajiang Grand Canyon, nicknamed “the Earth’s crack,” and represents a major addition to China’s rapidly expanding infrastructure network.
Zhang Yin, head of Guizhou’s transportation department, described the bridge as “a landmark project that showcases China’s innovation” and highlighted its role in enhancing regional connectivity.
The bridge has achieved multiple technological breakthroughs in wind-resistance design and high-altitude construction, securing 21 authorized patents. Several innovations have already been incorporated into national bridge construction standards.
Construction of the bridge posed significant challenges due to the canyon’s rugged terrain. Engineers leveraged advanced technologies, including satellite navigation, drones, smart monitoring systems, and ultra-high-strength materials, achieving millimeter-level precision in high-altitude conditions.
Guizhou, historically one of China’s least developed provinces, has now constructed over 30,000 bridges across its mountainous terrain, including three of the world’s tallest.
The province accounts for nearly half of the world’s 100 tallest bridges, and the combined length of its existing and under-construction bridges exceeds 5,400 kilometers—nearly equal to China’s north-to-south span.
