Conquer Your Fear of Heights When China’s 900-Foot Glass Bridge Opens in June
This should make your bucket list.
China is about to finish building the longest open space suspension glass bridge in the world. Construction of the bridge is pegged for completion by May 1, 2016, according to Xinhua. Recently, workers were able to finish the steel beams on the structure.
It isn't exactly completely made of glass, but the bottom is, so that's one way to overcome your fear of heights if you have one.
Stretching over 430 meters or 1,410 feet from one mountain to another, China's new glass bridge will be able to offer a view of the valley 300 meters (984 feet) below and the forest floor 4,700 feet below.
It also boasts of "the world's steepest ziptreck and highest Bungee platform."
The glass bridge is located in the Tianmenshan National Forest Park in Zhangjiajie, which is in central China's mountainous Hunan Province.
According to People's Daily Online, when it is completed, the humongous six-meter-wide structure will be able to hold 800 people at a time. Zhangjiajie's glass skywalk is also almost 20 feet wide.
Zhangjiajie's glass bridge looks really intimidating, but this isn't the first time that China decided to connect two mountains using glass bridges in an attempt to boost tourism to the country's national parks.
Last year, China finished another bold glass structure at the Shiniuzhai National Geological Park, which is in Hunan province as well.
Located roughly 500 km or 310 miles far from the Zhangjiajie glass bridge, the Shiniuzhai bridge (274 m) is a glass bridge that was just opened in September.
Suspended 900 feet (274 meters) across a canyon and boasting a 600-foot (182m) view of the drop below, the Shiniuzhai bridge received a warm welcome from tourists.
There's also China's glass bridge at the Yuntai Mountain Geological Park.
The glass walkway features a view of the cliff face at Yuntai Mountain Scenic Spot from 3,540 feet high.
While all of these sound exciting, there's just one problem. The Yuntai glass bridge cracked while tourists were crossing it in October 2015. According to the San Francisco Gate, a pane of glass shattered on the bridge just a month after its opening when a tourist dropped a metal bottle on the pane.
The incident prompted officials to close Yuntai's U-shaped glass pathway. By November 2015, online forums claimed the glass structure in Yuntai remains closed.
As for Zhangjiajie's glass bridge, it looks like tourists are assured that no cracks will be happening. Speaking to Xinhua, Chen Zhidong from Zhangjiajie Scenic Area Management Co. said the skywalk has passed nearly 100 safety tests to safely hold 800 people without breaking.
In addition, Chief Engineer Wan Tianbao claimed that more than 70 glass balls, each weighing 750 kg, have been placed on the glass bridge to make sure there's no vibration that will take place. He added that the glass passed wind, slippage and temperature resistance tests with flying colors.
Check out photos of the glass bridge under construction in Zhangjiajie here.
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