Sidu River Bridge

The bridge sits roughly 496 meters, or 1,627 feet, above the Sidu River gorge, making it one of the highest bridges in the world. At the time of its completion, it held the absolute record for the highest bridge on the planet. The height is so extreme that the valley below is often obscured by clouds.

It is a massive suspension bridge that carries the G50 Shanghai–Chongqing Expressway. It features a main span of 900 meters suspended between two huge concrete pylons. The engineering required to anchor the cables in such steep, remote terrain was highly complex.

The bridge was officially completed and opened to traffic in November 2009. It was built as part of a massive infrastructure push to improve highway connectivity through the mountainous regions of Hubei Province. The project significantly reduced travel times across the rugged terrain.

Because the gorge was too deep and wide for traditional methods, engineers used rockets to fire the initial pilot cables across the valley. This was the first time in history that rockets were used to establish a bridge's cable system. Once the pilot lines were secured, larger cables were pulled across to build the suspension structure.