text: World’s Longest &Highest Glass-bottom Bridge Opening in Zhangjiajie Share On: 
   
   This July, the world’s longest and highest glass-bottom bridge will debut in China, above the breathtaking scenery of Wulingyuan area. Located in Zhangjiajie, China – which was the inspiration for James Cameron’s movie Avatar – the bridge is nearly 1,000 feet above the ground, providing stunning panoramic views for those thrill-seekers willing to cross the bridge. The bridge spans more than 1,400 feet (the Grand Canyon Skywalk by comparison is only 69 feet long). It is 20 feet wide and can hold up to 800 people at once. Its transparent walkway is not only the largest of its kind ever built, but one of the most beautiful, with visibility over the top and sides, as well as through the bottom. The Zhangjiajie Grand Canyon Glass Bridge floats in harmony with the surrounding scenery and affords tourists incredible views of the nearby sandstone and quartz peaks, trees, and waterfalls. Plans are also in the works to introduce a bungee jump from the bridge in the coming months. It too will be the world’s highest once completed. 
   
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   China in the News Archive > ||||| The Zhangjiajie Grand Canyon bridge, the world's highest and longest glass bridge, is set to open in Hunan, China, next month and its operators want to assure you it's safe. 
   
   This follows incidents like the Yuntaishan glass bridge in central China's Henan province cracking last September. 
   
   To assuage fears, Zhangjiajie's makers invited BBC reporter Dan Simmons to carry out a safety test. 
   
   The test involves Simmons standing on top of an elevated glass panel — the same panels that make up the bridge — which was placed on the bridge and slamming a sledgehammer on it. 
   
   At Simmons' first swing, the top layer of the panel shows visible cracks. He was then encouraged to take a few more swings at the glass panel. Despite the precarious-looking cracks that showed up after several hits, the glass panel remained intact. 
   
   View of the Zhangjiajie Grand Canyon bridge. Image: Shao ying/Imaginechina/ap 
   
   The bridge stretches for 430 metres between two cliffs and hovers 300 metres above ground. It is a scenic skywalk that's already racked up a bunch of world records even before it officially opened to the public. 
   
   Aerial view of the world's longest and highest glass-bottomed bridge. Image: Shao ying/Imaginechina/AP 
   
   Designed by Israeli architect Haim Dotan, the bridge can hold 800 people at once and there are plans for it to be used as a fashion runway as well as a bungee jumping point. 
   
   Have something to add to this story? Share it in the comments. ||||| The world's highest and longest glass-bottomed bridge is expected to open next month in Zhangjiajie. 
   
   BBC Click's Dan Simmons was challenged to smash his way through one of the panels used to form the skywalk. 
   
   More at BBC.com/Click and @BBCClick. ||||| Explore Eagle Point 
   
   While the Skywalk is certainly the highlight, there is much more to enjoy here at Eagle Point, which was named after a natural rock formation that looks like an eagle. Watch Native American dances in the amphitheater each day at 1 p.m. and 5 p.m. Be sure to visit the Native American Gift Shop and explore several dwellings of the regions indigenous tribes—including the Hualapai, Navajo, Plains, Hopi, and Havasupai—in the Native American Village. For your convenience, we offer shuttle buses to all points within Grand Canyon West from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., except for Hualapai Ranch, which has bus service from 8 p.m. to 4 p.m. ||||| Thrill-seeking tourists or those looking to overcome their fear of heights may be excited to know that the world's longest and highest glass-bottomed bridge will open this July in China. 
   
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   Visitors can walk across an enormous stretch of transparent panels over the Zhangjiajie Grand Canyon in Zhangjiajie, Hunan Province, China. 
   
   The bridge is more than 1,400 feet long, a 20 feet wide, and nearly 1,000 feet above the ground, according to the China National Tourist Office. 
   
   VCG via Getty Images 
   
   Plans are also in the works to construct a bungee jump from the bridge, for those wishing for an even more terrifying adventure. 
   
   VCG via Getty Images 
   
   This infrastructure project is hopefully sturdier than China's last glass-bottomed overpass. 
   
   Another glass-bottomed bridge in China, soaring about 3,280 feet above sea-level, around a cliff on the Yuntai Mountain in the Henan province, reportedly cracked after a tourist dropped a thermos flask on one of the glass panels, Chinese media reported. ||||| Cracks have appeared on a U-shaped glass-bottomed skywalk built around a mountain cliff in China, sending tourists fleeing off the structure, Chinese media reported. 
   
   Internet users posted pictures online showing cracks on the reinforced glass flooring, which is suspended more than 1,000 metres above sea level, around a cliff on Yuntai Mountain in Henan province, the Legal Evening News reported. 
   
   WATCH: People tour the glass skywalk around China's Yuntai Mountain 
   
   The photos sparked an outcry, with internet users alleging that inferior construction material had been used to build the skywalk, which opened to public only about two weeks ago. 
   
   Officials said the cracks were caused by tourists who had dropped a thermos flask on the glass.
target: – People who stand on glass bridges shouldn't swing sledgehammers, right? Not so, says the Chinese government, at least when it comes to the Zhangjiajie Grand Canyon bridge—the highest, longest glass bridge in the world, according to Mashable. In fact, the operators of the bridge allowed Dan Simmons of BBC Click to take a sledgehammer to the glass-bottom bridge that, per the China National Tourism Office, spans more than 1,400 feet (it points out the Grand Canyon Skywalk measures only 69) and is suspended some 1,000 feet above the ground. Simmons' first whack resulted in cracking to the top of a glass panel. But after a dozen blows, the lower two layers were unscathed. The stunt was an attempt to prove the safety of glass bridges after a glass-bottom skywalk in China was closed last year due to cracking that had tourists scrambling to get off of the more than 3,280-foot-high structure. The cracks to a glass panel were caused by a dropped thermos, per the South China Morning Post. The new bridge, which is 20 feet wide and capable of holding up to 800 people at once, is set to open to the public in July, per ABC, which adds that "those wishing for an even more terrifying adventure" may someday be able to bungee jump from the structure. (This fright-inducing glass tourist attraction is located in LA.)