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Highest bridge unveiled at more than 2,000ft above ground
- toss1 1y agoImpressive engineering and build. Looks like a great spot for BASE jumping!
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- quink 1y agoNote: highest, not tallest. Highest should technically be the building here: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kola_Superdeep_Borehole https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kola_Superdeep_Borehole which is more than 12km above ground, that is to say 12km high. Or, rather, was, having been destroyed since. There’s other boreholes too though.
- quickthrowman 1y agoThe Kola boreholes are 22 centimeters (9 inches) in diameter, that building is not a bridge in any way, shape, or form.
- quink 1y agoOne of these days I’ll get a model railroad bridge and put it over a borehole. But that day shan’t be today because arguing technicalities on HN seems easier :) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tallest_bridges https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tallest_bridges vs https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_highest_bridges https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_highest_bridges
- quickthrowman 1y agoIf you set up a model train bridge over the Kola borehole, I’ll concede and admit it’s a bridge ;) I learned something by writing my response, I didn’t know how large the Kola boreholes were and now I do! Also, thanks for clarifying the distinction between highest and tallest, the span on the Chinese bridge is 2000’ above the ground at certain points but the towers themselves are only 860 feet tall, other bridges have taller towers/pillars but the deck height isn’t as high as this Chinese one.
- SequoiaHope 1y agoI think I’m going to visit China soon, to the Pearl River Delta. I want to meet manufacturers and advance a product I am working on, and having lived in the US my entire life, I desperately need to see what it’s like when a country is really trying to build a future.
- Freedom2 1y agoIs there any reason why you believe the US isn't that country?
- presentation 1y agoRightists are scared of energy sources beyond coal and oil; leftists are scared of information technology that could replace human workers; homeowners are scared to make any physical changes to their neighborhoods and cities because it would "change the neighborhood character"; legislators are scared/incapable of making any fundamental changes to governance because it would be difficult, and can't agree on anything; the president and the average American are scared of anyone and any ideas that don't come from within the country's borders; and for anyone who isn't scared, the cost of enacting change will be a realization that everyone who has skills have either retired or abandoned their trades to become software engineers optimizing ad revenue; and that the young are no longer interested in taking on these challenges because they're doomscrolling TikTok all day; and if they proceed, they will be mired in lawsuits for decades by naysayers; and the financial costs will be 10x the true value paid anywhere else in the world.
- supportengineer 1y agoAll of this. Everyone in the US is basically afraid of something.
- SoftTalker 1y agoInnovator’s dilemma at social scale.
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- jmyeet 1y agoI knew it was going to be China. China's infrastructure building is beyond impressive. I always come back to this map of China's high speed rail built in 16 years (2008-2024) [1]. China is actually run by a meritocratic bureaucracy rather than the dumbest of people who do nothing more than sell pardons, run crypto scams, transfer government funds to the wealthiest of people, pander to religious hallucinations and sell out their constituents for board seats and jobs after their political career from the very billionaires that were buying them in office. And no, it's not just one party that does this although the current administration is particularly egregious. [1]: https://www.reddit.com/r/highspeedrail/comments/1drmc2v/growth_of_chinese_hsr_network_between_20082024/ https://www.reddit.com/r/highspeedrail/comments/1drmc2v/grow...
- Mindless2112 1y agoI, too, am jealous of China's high speed railroads. However, on the whole, China has overbuilt their infrastructure, and that may not look so smart in 40-50 years when the maintenance bills start coming due.
- Liftyee 1y agoPerhaps. One would hope that ability to build would correlate with ability to maintain, so that nothing falls into disrepair - but we'll have to see.
- tokioyoyo 1y agoIs it factually true? Because some routes that I’m personally aware of are constantly over booked when it comes to rails. Some, I guess, might be overbuilt, but time will show. I’ll agree on some malls though, but it’s more like private stuff, than government-led initiatives.
- smcin 1y agoSo, perhaps 2020s China ~ 1950s US demographics. The bridges that recently collapsed in the US (2024 Baltimore/Francis Scott Key Bridge and 2007 Minneapolis I-35W Mississippi River Bridge) were built in 1964 and 1972-1977 respectively. Noone has yet compared the Chinese construction times/costs to the replacement Baltimore Francis Scott Key Bridge: cost ~$2b, estimated October 2028. Will have 600ft bridge towers, 1600ft main span (increased from 1209ft), total span length 3300 ft, improved pier protection. Surprised they didn't add a freight rail link.
- hackthemack 1y agoI was curious about the drone footage mentioned in the article. Here is a link to a video of a fly over. https://www.msn.com/en-us/video/news/world%E2%80%99s-tallest-bridge-officially-opens-in-china/vi-AA1NGjiU https://www.msn.com/en-us/video/news/world%E2%80%99s-tallest...
- nowittyusername 1y agoThat's pretty nuts, they should make a mini documentary on how they made it and all the hurdles they had to overcome and all that jazz.
- margalabargala 1y agoDid this part concern anyone else? > Last month, a team of engineers deployed 96 trucks to strategic points across the bridge to recreate heavy traffic conditions to ensure it would not buckle. Reminds me of this https://featureassets.gocomics.com/assets/74c15210deb901317193005056a9545d https://featureassets.gocomics.com/assets/74c15210deb9013171...
- wak90 1y agoThey deploy trucks to see how the bridge vibrates.
- margalabargala 1y agoAnd to ensure it would not buckle, per the article. Implying they were not sure it would not buckle, until they drove the trucks on.
- stevage 1y agoWell, that's how it was reported, but not necessarily accurate.
- M95D 1y agoI'll trust the truck-test far more than any simulation.
- gverrilla 1y agoThat's like saying unit testing implies there are bugs in the code.
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- ishouldbework 1y agoIf I was sure my code had no bugs, I would not need unit testing.
- potato3732842 1y agoTakes 3yr to replace a 50ft I beam bridge across a small river where I live, mostly because of unnecessary permitting and process. When you add up all the months here and there for every sign off from every party at each stage it adds up fast.
- Hnrobert42 1y agoUnnecessary until it's removed and a bridge collapses. Then it's the incompetent government.
- potato3732842 1y ago[flagged]
- causal 1y agoNobody is advocating for unnecessary checkboxing. When 18-wheelers cross a bridge, it has to be engineered correctly. Unnecessary red-tape happens, but in no way would I want a bridge you "shoot from the hip" carrying my family alongside commercial trucks.
- potato3732842 1y agoIt doesn't need to be "engineered" at all. You don't need some six+ figure person supported by a whole office of other 6 figure people to run numbers on cookie cutter stuff that's only slightly different than the last stuff. Hell, 99x/100 they're taking the numbers and then picking the closest cookie cutter beam shapes, rebar arrangements, concrete forms, etc, etc that do the job. What even is the point of having situation specific numbers if you're going to constrain your choices to finite options? This is the kind of work that, before industry lobbyists got involved, used to be done using reference tables and all the intermediary make work didn't exist. Someone building a bridge would say the span is X, traffic is Y, and that would get them their beams, their spacing and their decking specs. From there they'd get their weight numbers and they'd cross that with the soil and get their footings. And it's not just bridges, it's everything. But there's too many people, too much money, and too many careers tied up in the racket and they'll screech every step of the way so it'll never get fixed until it's so flagrantly the source of problems that it's undeniable, and even then it probably won't, look at healthcare.
- VariousPrograms 1y agoAs someone who doesn't keep up with bridge news, China seems to have a monopoly on incredible new mountain bridges. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_highest_bridges https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_highest_bridges
- epolanski 1y agoChina has incredible engineers and architects. Say what you want but the only region in the world I went that felt like looking forward is Asia, even borderline decaying countries like Japan are clearly looking forward, you can see it from what and how they build, and not just in major centers.
- stickfigure 1y ago[flagged]
- delta_p_delta_x 1y agoChina is superlative in every way possible and many people don't really seem to get it. It has several of the tallest mountains in the world—dozens over 7 km, and many of the eight-thousanders, given it borders the Himalayas and contains part of the Hindu Kush and most of the Tibetan Plateau. Given such immense mountains it also makes sense that there's a huge rain shadow behind them, and therefore China also contains both the Gobi and Taklimakan deserts. It also has historic old cities that form the core of their modern glass and steel cities, with plenty of Chinese architecture to go around. It also has 50 000 km of newly-built high speed rail with rolling stock that rips through all of those mountains and deserts at 350 km/h.
- igleria 1y ago> China is superlative in every way possible and Americans don't really seem to get it. A a latino it's amusing to watch. After the soviet union failed, Americans thought they had won the civilization game forever. I would never move to China due to political concerns, but at the game of empire they are kicking butt, and that unnerves some Americans. Must be odd being born and raised in a first world country (?)
- screye 1y agoVery impressive. The economic angle is a bit confusing. Wonder why China thought this was a worthy investment. Guizhou is a poor part of China, without much international tourism or trade. Wikipedia indicates it is meant to increase tourism, but even China's most attractive regions (Beijing, Shanghai, Great Wall, Chengdu, Chongqing) are under-visited. I can't imagine that Guizhou will be on foreign tourist's agenda for at least a couple of decades. I think this is an attempt by the local govt. to get more internal tourism. It might work out. We'll see.
- Liftyee 1y agoThe Wikipedia page currently also states that it reduces the gorge crossing time from 70 minutes to one minute. So it definitely serves a purpose - whether we each judge that to be worth it is another question.
- tokioyoyo 1y agoBridge building in China is a way to flex for provinces right now. For better or worse, I guess, but infrastructure investment is cool.
- epolanski 1y ago> The economic angle is a bit confusing. We don't need an economic angle to build great things that help people. It's a bridge, it's meant to be a shortcut from point A to B. We aren't just cogwheels in an economic system, there's more to life and progress as humans.
- Hnrobert42 1y agoThere is an opportunity cost.
- dotancohen 1y agoI believe that the saving four hours (two hours each way) to travel from or to the city, multiplied by the amount of current and potential vehicles, is a clear opportunity benefit. Not to mention the fuel saved and pollution prevented. And increased economic development for the city.
- hinkley 1y agoI didn't even like driving over the West Seattle Bridge and it's only 140 ft up.
- Scubabear68 1y agoI’m with you on that. I live in NJ and unfortunately I have to deal with bridges, fear of heights or no.
- vjvjvjvjghv 1y agoWith a lot of these high bridges they block the view so you barely notice that you are on a bridge.
- cadamsdotcom 1y agoChinese bridge, designed by Chinese engineers, built by Chinese workers, captured with (we assume) a Chinese drone. What a spectacular scene. I am proud on behalf of all the people who worked together to achieve this.
- carabiner 1y agoChina is like a modern Roman empire. Masters of civil engineering.
- thom 1y agoYup, similar number of slaves too. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demography_of_the_Roman_Empire https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demography_of_the_Roman_Empire https://www.walkfree.org/global-slavery-index/country-studies/china/ https://www.walkfree.org/global-slavery-index/country-studie...
- intalentive 1y agoA confident, unified people under competent leadership can accomplish great things. I wish the Chinese continued success and hope their example eventually spurs the development of a new ruling class in the West.
- Hnrobert42 1y agoEspecially when dissent is ruthlessly crushed and any record of it is erased.
- mandeepj 1y agoIn China, recently, there was a bridge collapse of one of their tallest bridges. I hope it was an isolated incident and not a lapse in their process or principles. https://youtu.be/glZr4dR4Xyw https://youtu.be/glZr4dR4Xyw
- JumpinJack_Cash 1y agoPart of me seeing the record and the whole artificial waterfall gave me a sense that it's not a race anymore, we already lost. On the other hand...we won the space race and we went to the moon, except only 15 guys or thereabout went and for the rest of us didn't mean anything substantial at all.
- jamie_ca 1y agoLots of tech was developed and commercialized as a byproduct of the space program. https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/infographics/20-inventions-we-wouldnt-have-without-space-travel/ https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/infographics/20-inventions-we-would...
- stevage 1y agoVery poor return on investment if you look at it only in those terms.
- gverrilla 1y agoUSA greatest product for the last decades was illusions, that's all. Illusions, bombs and coups... And reality always wins over illusions in the end. China will show that with great joy to the people of the world.
- ChuckMcM 1y agoYoutube link for the bridge https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mytGMsn4wvk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mytGMsn4wvk
- nikkwong 1y agoIt's hilariously depressing to imagine how impossible it would be to build something like that in the US. It's not only the fact that it's an engineering feat—it's also the fact that it was built in such a human-centric way. The cafe at the top, the light show with the water. These things are all superfluous, but make these projects exciting and add novelty which makes these areas just fun places to be. The U.S., in it's current form, could never build any infrastructure projects in such a human-centric way, because, well, we apparently have an inability to build anything at all. Seriously, when's the last time we built something like this. The only initiative I can even think of is California high speed rail and that project just so happens to be a testament to the absolute antithesis of what I'm proclaiming.
- bravetraveler 1y agoGoing to need a business case that translates to value, sorry. Common sentiment, apparently, is that our postal service must generate profit. Clown show.
- dceddia 1y agoAnd it’s amazing that this got built in only 3 years! I can’t imagine anything this substantial being built that fast in the US. I can’t think of any examples either but I’d be happy to see some that anyone knows of.
- gusgus01 1y agoThe two longest floating bridges in the world are in Seattle, Washington. The longest, Evergreen Point Floating Bridge, has a mixed use lane for cycling and walking and supposedly took 5 years to construct after construction started (ignoring that it replaced a bridge that existed there and also planning took longer, I'm not sure how to compare that). Seattle also has the world's only floating bridge that has rail on it, Homer M. Hadley Memorial Bridge, which is also the world's 5th longest floating bridge. While not the same exact sort of feat of engineering, it's pretty cool. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evergreen_Point_Floating_Bridge https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evergreen_Point_Floating_Bri... https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lacey_V._Murrow_Memorial_Bridge https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lacey_V._Murrow_Memorial_Bri... https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homer_M._Hadley_Memorial_Bridge https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homer_M._Hadley_Memorial_Bri...
- MangoToupe 1y agoI find it hard to swallow my jealousy of the chinese. It's hard to imagine america collectively accomplishing much of anything in my lifetime.
- xwolfi 1y agoWell it's not the same game. Here in China we're in this phase of accomplishing big stuff to help each other and flex a bit and wow at our own development. When the British colonized America, it was exactly the same - an insane accomplishment to capture and re-develop that land into something half-working so far away. When China starts capturing and colonizing other continents, you can start being really jealous ! Now, the US is focused on other stuff like maybe having some return on their investment, or looking at its people as first-class problems rather than ants meant for a greater national goal. It's not that bad, it depends on what you focus on, I think people in the US have nice stuff to look forward to, like I don't know, a holiday in Disneyland with their kids, when Chinese people often don't see our kids for years while we're building bridges far away. Plus you know, we don't get to vote for great politicians like in the US and are stuck instead with bureaucrats that care more about infrastructure than pleasing the people. Be proud of that, I'd love for us to have your president (yes, I'm teasing you :p)
- x______________ 1y agoI like the /s here When China starts capturing and colonizing other continents, you can start being really jealous ! We're still doing /s right? This mentality is outdated..
- rirze 1y agoOutdated or not-- it's already happening. China is creating "economic colonization" zones across second/third world nations by lending loans such that countries that can't pay up have to settle by giving up strategic bastions of power. Take a look at (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hambantota_International_Port https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hambantota_International_Port). Overtly, not owned by the Chinese government but you can draw your own feelings. This is how western colonization started.
- pcl 1y agoI really don't understand all the hyperbole around this bridge. It's a suspension bridge, so the relevant bits are at the pylons, which just happen to be on either side of a huge canyon. It clocks in at #14 on Wikipedia's list of longest suspension bridges, with a main span that is 603 meters shorter (2023 meters vs 1420) than the longest. More interestingly, to me at least, is the fact that 31 of the longest 50 are all in China (as are all but two of the 24 in the "under construction or planned"). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_longest_suspension_bridge_spans https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_longest_suspension_bri...
- hn_throwaway_99 1y ago> I really don't understand all the hyperbole around this bridge. It's a suspension bridge, so the relevant bits are at the pylons I understand what you're saying, but the experience is quite different for the people driving over it compared to a bridge where it isn't a 2000 foot drop.
- stavros 1y agoYeah, I know it doesn't matter how high the actual bridge is, just the length and pylons, but it feels like it matters!
- sidewndr46 1y agoI think the point being made is that if you followed two ridgelines that make up a valley up to a common summit you could just jam a plank in there. You've got the world's highest bridge. It's only 4 ft long, but it is technically a bridge. I'd be more interested to know how they raised individual components into place. But I presume they just started with small cables, then used those to raise larger ones into place over time.
- burnt-resistor 1y agoAbout 6 hours ago, I watched a video of this from a motorcycle Youtuber who crawled down a sketchy, enclosed, temporary ladder into an unfinished visitor area. There will be a place for people to run on a track on the outside (with an above harness), bungee jumping, misting rainbow effect sprayers, and visitor's areas underneath and in the top of one of the towers. The team of engineers who developed this are also quite young. https://youtu.be/sm5kLw54uVA https://youtu.be/sm5kLw54uVA
- drcongo 1y agoThat video was very triggering for my vertigo, kind of enjoyed it though.
- flowerthoughts 1y agoIs China drilling less than Switzerland/Austria/France, or are they mixing bridges and tunnels, and the tunnels don't get press releases?
- DecoPerson 1y agoI'm not sure about this particular project, but while riding on their high speed trains between various cities, I witnessed a great quantity of tunnels of a variety of lengths. Some of them were very, very long. China is doing a lot of drilling, based on what I've seen first-hand.
- fifilura 1y agoI'd imagine the amount drilling is dependent of the quality of the mountain you are drilling. If it is pure granite it is easy, but if it is a mix of other softer materials it is a lot of work.
- dgan 1y agoSo it's 2000ft tall and 2890m long. I wonder how much bananas it weighs
- madaxe_again 1y agoIt’s as wide as two Olympic size Eiffel towers.
- gmueckl 1y agoI think the weight should be expeessed in average yearly banana haevests to keep the numbers low and comprehensible. It's going to be intuitive, I promise. /s
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- 6LLvveMx2koXfwn 1y agoI was going to make some joke about not wanting to be the dude driving over the bridge for the load test - entirely presuming there was some more sophisticated way to load test new bridges . . . but no: https://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/news-photo/load-testing-on-the-huajiang-grand-canyon-bridge-is-in-news-photo/2231947613 https://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/news-photo/load-testing...
- jp57 1y agoI hope the engineering team were riding in the trucks.
- MitPitt 1y agoTo punish them for building a cool bridge or?
- hackable_sand 1y agoKey stone?
- freedomben 1y agoWell, it's a good way to check their confidence level of their work
- jp57 1y agoIt's only a punishment if the bridge falls down. But if someone is making truck drivers drive heavy trucks out onto a bridge to "test" if it will stand up under the load it only seems fair to me that the engineers who designed and built it take the risk alongside them.
- MitPitt 1y agoI'm positive those trucks are self driven. There is no need for draconian measures you hoped for. Spaceship engineers aren't forced to go into space.
- gverrilla 1y ago[flagged]
- wtcactus 1y ago[flagged]
- geldedus 1y agoHow to make the highest bridge in the world : find a deeper canyon. You're welcome.
- Kate5477 1y ago[dead]