The 9,482-foot-long Huajiang Grand Canyon Bridge in China has become a tourist attraction, with a glass observation hall, a narrow plank walk over the canyon, bungee jumping, and nighttime light shows.

Originally designed to reduce a two-hour canyon crossing to just two minutes, it connects Guanling Bouyei-Miao Autonomous County with Zhenfeng County. In April 2026, c certified it as the world’s highest bridge, at 2,054 feet above the river below.

Now, the bridge is a destination for sightseeing, adventure sports, and local tourism. During China’s recent week-long National Day Holiday, it drew thousands of visitors, highlighting the bridge as a tourist attraction that was always part of the plan.

Huajiang Grand Canyon Bridge opened to traffic on September 28, 2025, after three years of construction, according to Smithsonian Magazine, which reported on the opening on October 1, 2025.

It surpassed the Beipanjiang Bridge, also known as the Duge Bridge which had held the world record since 2016 at about 1,854 feet above the river.

The new bridge stood even taller at about 2,054 feet above the Beipan River. The entire Empire State Building could fit beneath it with about 600 feet to spare, as per the Smithsonian. The height was not really the point though.

Chief engineer Yang Jian told Xinhua that they designed the bridge so high because if it were any shorter, they would have had to construct longer tunnels through the surrounding mountains, increasing costs and even contributing to driver fatigue.

The design came from the need to balance the bridge length with the connecting tunnels, which is why it ended up so high.

Source link