The Beipanjiang Bridge sits over 565 meters (1,854 feet) above the Beipan River Valley nestled between two very steep cliffs, making it the world’s highest bridge.

Also known as the Duge Bridge or “China’s Impossible Engineering Feat”, the world’s highest bridge may not look that impressive at first sight, but it is a testament to Chinese engineering and innovation. Located close to the border between the provinces of Guizhou and Yunnan, in one of China’s most mountainous regions, the Beipanjiang Bridge required so many design innovations and new technologies that the company that built it won a Gustav Lindenthal Gold Medal, considered the “Nobel Prize” in the field of bridge construction. Completed in 2016, the world’s highest bridge connected the provinces of Guizhou and Yunnan, opening up an entire area that had previously been inaccessible to cars and trucks.

Read More »

Most bridges in North Carolina have a 15-foot clearance, but the one at the intersection of Gregson and Peabody streets in Durham is over 100 years old, so it has a clearance of 11 feet 8 inches. That’s pretty rare, so many drivers don’t really pay attentions to the warning signs and they become a victim of the famous can opener bridge.

Over the years, Durham’s 11’8″ bridge in damaged well over 100 trucks. It has become such a problem that state authorities went out of their way to mark it as an unusually low clearance bridge, in the hope that most overheight truck drivers would turn back. But the thing is a lot o them don’t pay attention to the signs, and by the time they realize they may not fit, it’s too late. In the end, the state had no choice but to break the piggy bank and lift the old train bridge by 20 centimeters, to avoid accidents, but that doesn’t seem to have done much good, as the can opener recently claimed its 167th victim.

Read More »

Authorities in Cairo, Egypt, have come under fire for approving the construction of an “essential” highway bridge literally half a meter from several apartment buildings.

Egyptian social media has been abuzz over a new high-speed bridge currently under construction in Cairo’s Al-Haram district, for the simple reason that it is being built right next to a number f residential buildings on Nasr El-Din Street. And when we say “right next to”,  we mean that in the most literal sense, as the bridge is just 50 centimetres away from people’s homes. However, in a surprising twist, authorities announced that the bridge had all the necessary permits, and that it was the residential buildings that had been built without a permit. Therefore, an order for their demolition has already been issued.

Read More »

There are plenty of dangerous-looking vehicle bridges around the world, but few as adrenaline-inducing as Kuandinsky Bridge, in Russia’s Trans-Baikal Region.

Stretching 570 meters over the Vitim River, this precarious vehicle crossing is just over two meters wide and features no railing or other safety features to keep the cars from falling into the frozen water if anything should go wrong. Its decaying metallic structure is simply covered with old wooden railway sleepers that become very slippery when covered with ice and snow, which is almost all year round, since this is Siberia we’re talking about.

Read More »

When Austrian designer Robert Kalina came up with the design for Euro banknotes in 2002, he deliberately created fictional bridges that represent European architecture in general. The bridges can be recognised as having originated in various periods of European history, such as the Roman period, the Gothic period, the Renaissance, and contemporary 20th century architecture. This was supposed to be a good way to keep things generic and not favor any particular member country in the EU.

But with his latest stunt, Dutch architect Robin Stam has turned the idea on its head. “The European Bank didn’t want to use real bridges so I thought it would be funny to claim the bridges and make them real,” he explained. So he went and built all the bridges exactly as seen on the paper money, according to color and scale

Read More »