China opens world's longest bridge, 2,890 meters long, 625 meters above the Beipan River

                                                              Great Huajiang Valley Bridge

China opens world's longest bridge to traffic

The world's longest bridge opened to traffic Sunday morning in southwest China's Guizhou Province, reducing travel time across a deep valley from two hours to just two minutes after three years of construction.

The Huajiang Valley Bridge rises 625 meters above the Beipan River in Guizhou Province's mountainous terrain, making it nearly nine times longer than San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge, according to Xinhua News Agency. According to Guizhou provincial authorities, the project, with a main span of 1,420 meters, is the longest steel-truss suspension bridge with a long span over mountainous terrain in the world.

The 2,890-meter-long structure spans the Huajiang Grand Canyon, dubbed the "earth split," and is the latest addition to the rapidly expanding infrastructure network of the world's second-largest economy. Over the years, Guizhou, one of China's least developed provinces, has built more than 30,000 bridges in its mountainous terrain, including three of the world's longest. The province is home to nearly half of the world's 100 longest bridges.