Brave Man\’s Bridge

You may have heard of the “Brave Man’s Bridge” or you may not want to. It made international headlines last year when the 590-foot high, 1,000-foot long bridge—made of glass 25 times thicker than normal glass—cracked only a few weeks after opening. Cue the horror, which is exactly what happened when tourists noticed the bridge’s cracks.

But don’t worry—the bridge was closed for repairs and has reopened to the public. To calm you even more, only one of the three layers of glass on only one of the bridge’s panels cracked, meaning technically it was still safe to walk across.

The Brave Man’s Bridge is located in China’s Hunan Province, where millions of tourists flock every year to see its amazing cliffs, mountains and to now climb across the Brave Man’s Bridge (let’s just abbreviate it to BMB).

Originally a wooden bridge, the BMB was converted to glass and reopened on September 20^th to the horror of those with a fear of heights and to the excitement of those who are willing to try anything once. Before slightly cracking as mentioned above, the bridge was so sturdy that even when dozens of tourists jumped on the bridge—clearly those with no regard for their own safety—the bridge stayed completely still.

The Hunan Province is located in South Central China and in addition to the BMB holds the ZhangJiaJie National Forest Park, which is the park that Pandora, the fictional world in David Cameron’s “Avatar”, was modeled after. Not surprisingly, the billion dollar movie’s recognition has caused massive amounts of tourists to visit the national park, which now has sculptures of Avatars among its mountains.

In addition to the Brave Man’s Bridge, a new, 980-foot high bridge is being built in the same area of the BMB, where tourists will be able to further test their limits. But until that bridge is completed, the Brave Man’s Bridge will just have to do—that is, not until the cracked panels are replaced.