AFP, Beijing

The world’s highest bridge opened to traffic in China yesterday, state media said, capping an engineering feat three years in the making.

The Huajiang Grand Canyon Bridge towers 625 metres above a river and vast gorge in the country’s rugged southern province of Guizhou, also home to the 565-metre Beipanjiang Bridge that is now the world’s second highest.

Live drone footage broadcast by state media showed vehicles traversing the immense structure, its support towers partially engulfed in clouds.

State news agency Xinhua said Wednesday that nearly half of the world’s 100 highest bridges are located in Guizhou.

The Huajiang Grand Canyon Bridge took more than three years to complete, Xinhua reported. Its 1,420-metre main span makes it the “world’s largest-span bridge built in a mountainous area”, it added.