World's highest glass-bottomed bridge opens in China: Terrifying images emerge as tourists brave giant structure
It opened to the public on a trial basis on Saturday
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Your support makes all the difference.The first tourists have been pictured trying out the world's longest and highest glass-bottomed bridge in China.
The £2.6million structure is 430 metres long and spans a valley connecting two mountains in Zhangjiajie, Hunan Province.
One man was captured sitting down clasping a hand to his head, while another woman appeared more care-free doing the splits.
The area is characterised by lush, high mountains, caves and waterfalls.
Designed by Israeli architect Haim Dotan, the see-through floor allows visitors to peer 300m below.
China has a number of glass-bottomed bridges and walkways.
Architect Keith Brownlie told the BBC why they have such appeal: "It is the relationship between emotionally driven fear and the logical understanding of safety.
"These structures tread the boundary between those two contrasting senses and people like to challenge their rational mind in relation to their irrational fear."
A glass-bottomed walkway attached to the side of a mountain in China cracked while terrified tourists were travesing it in October last year.
The platform, which opened to the public on 20 September, runs along Yuntai Mountain in Henan Province and is elevated 3,540ft above the ground.
One person reported: “I looked down and saw the glass floor beneath me shattered. [I have] no idea why it happened, at that moment everybody was screaming.”
The company in charge of the bridge said the crack was caused by a sharp object falling onto it but insisted safety had not been compromised because there are three layers of glass.
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