The Beipanjiang First Bridge

“The highest bridge is Beipanjiang First Bridge, at 565.4 meters above the mean high water level,” says the certificate issued by Guinness World Records, to the bridge located over a “U” shape canyon at the junction of southwest China’s Yunnan Province and Guizhou Province, a local Guizhou media source reported on Wednesday.

As the world’s highest bridge and the bridge with the second largest span in the world so far, the Beipanjiang Bridge is a steel truss cable-stayed bridge with a total length of 1,341.4 meters and a maximum span of 720 meters.

The bridge, with a height equal to a 200-storey building, is one of three bridges on the Bijie-Duge section of the Hangzhou-Ruili Expressway, an expressway that connects the cities of Hangzhou in east China’s Zhejiang Province, and Ruili, Dehong Autonomous Prefecture of southwest China’s Yunnan Province.

Photo shows the Guinness World Records certificate that confirms Beipanjiang First Bridge as the world’s highest bridge. 

As it was built over a steep canyon with complicated geological conditions, it’s said that the bridge created the need for brand new construction technology and building methods.

The company that constructed the bridge also allegedly completed a research project for China’s Ministry of Transport while building the bridge. Additionally, they gained a series of honors for the construction project, including four patents for the invention of world leading new technologies, seven patents for new utility models, a Gustav Lindenthal Gold Medal, regarded as the world’s Nobel Prize in the bridge field, and the highest Science and Technology Award from the China Highway & Transportation Society.