VIETNAM: A glass-bottomed bridge in Vietnam, which opened for tourists in the month of April, has entered the Guinness Work Records (GWR) as the world’s longest bridge of its kind. GWR officials certified the Bach Long bridge over the weekend, CNN reported, citing local media reports.
The 2,073-feet-long bridge is a joint collaboration between local tourism authorities and a French construction company. It is suspended approximately 492 feet above ground.
The suspension bridge is in Son La province, northwest of the capital, Hanoi, and bordering Laos.
“I dared not look down as I am afraid of heights,” a visitor named Vi Thi Thu told news agency Reuters.
“At first it makes you panic, but then if you walked over around 10 glass panels, that feeling is gone,” said another visitor, 72-year-old Tran Xuan Tinh.
The reinforced glass used for the bridge has three layers, each 40 millimetres thick, according to a statement from the owner of the mountain resort where the bridge is located.
The Bach Long bridge is said to be strong enough to support 450 people at a time. An SUV was driven over the bridge last month to test its strength.
“The engineering required to build that into the side of a cliff but maintain all the features of nature, the greenery, the rocks, it’s been an amazing project,” Glen Pollard, a representative of Guinness World Record, said on Saturday.
The bridge has broken the record set by 526-metre-long structure in Guangdong, China, in 2020.
Bach Long is Vietnam’s third glass bridge. In 2018, Vietnam opened a mountain bridge held up by a pair of enormous stone hands in the Ba Na Hills area.
– FRANCE 24
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