And finally… China opens glass-bottomed bridge
A glass walkway suspended 180 meters (590 feet) above ground has opened in China.
Called Brave Men’s Bridge, the recently completed structure spans 984-feet above a sheer drop in China’s central Hunan Province.
The bridge, which connects the peak of the park to the Stone Buddha Mountain, was previously made of wood but after part of it was successfully converted to glass last year, authorities decided to go for the complete overhaul.
Now completed, the walkway in Hunan province is the longest of its kind in the world.
It took 11 engineers several months to replace all the planks of wood with plates of 24 millimeters thick glass — these ones are 25 times stronger than regular window glass and designed to withstand all sorts of impact.
Despite its appearance, its creators say the bridge in the Shiniuzhai National Geological Park is perfectly safe.
“The bridge we build will stand firm even if tourists are jumping on it,” a worker who constructed the bridge told the state-owned China News Service.
“The steel frame used to support and encase the glass bridge is also very strong and densely built, so even if a glass is broken, travellers won’t fall through.”
Hunan is due to open another glass bridge later this year in the Zhangjiajie Grand Canyon area, about 300 kilometers (186 miles) northwest of Shiniuzhai.
When completed, the Zhangjiajie structure will be the world’s highest and longest glass bridge — 430 meters long and 300 meters high.