The world's highest bridge recently opened in China. For travelers with acrophobia, this might not be a good thing to cross.
China has given us the Great Wall, the longest walkway twice as large as Manhattan, and now the world's highest bridge. The Duge Beipanjiang Bridge in southwest China opened to traffic this week. Duge Bridge is a cable-stayed bridge adjacent Liupanshui in China. As of 2016, the bridge is the highest in the world with the road surface decking over 565 metres above the Beipan River.
The Duge Bridge connects the river on the border flanked by Yunnan and Guizhou provinces. Duge Bridge is part of the G56 Hangzhou-Ruili Expressway crossing Qujing and Liupanshui. The Duge Bridge's eastern tower measures 269 m (883 ft.) making it one of the tallest in the world.
The Duge Bridge extends 1.34 km (0.83 miles) between Xuanwei city in Yunnan province and Shuicheng County in Guizhou province. It curtails the journey between the two places from more than four hours' drive to about an hour according to China Central TV. The Duge Bridge was constructed starting 2011 and was completed on 10 September 2016, it was inaugurated on December 29, 2016.
The bridge crosses the the Nizhu river, the size of the drop down to the water below as noted by Science Alert is almost two Eiffel Towers or one-and-a-half Empire State Buildings. The Duge Bridge dethrones the former highest bridge record holder, the Sidu River Bridge, also in China, which rises more than 500 meters (1,640 feet) above the ground below.
The Duge Bridge is assessed to have cost the Chinese government approximately 1 billion yuan or US$144 million. The tallest bridge in the world, however, in terms of structure rather than how high it is off the ground remains the Millau Viaduct in France, standing 343 meters (1,125 feet) tall in total.
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
