World's longest cantilever bridge opens in Chongqing

American "Flying Man" Miles Daisher and Chinese "Flying Man" Xu Kai are performing their first skydive from the bridge, April 26, 2015. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

The horseshoe-shaped, glass-bottom cantilever bridge - "Cloud Bridge" - at Yunyang Longgang Geological Park in Chongqing opened to the public on April 26.

According to Yunyang government, CloudBridge, the world's longest cantilever bridge with 26.68 meters overhang length, which is 5.34 meters longer than that of the Colorado Grand Canyon Skywalk, is an engineering masterpiece.

The glass bridge is located at an altitude of 1,010 meters and 718 meters above the Shisun River. It was finished at the end of April and cost more than 35 million yuan ($5.6 million) to complete.

On the opening day, American "Flying Man" Miles Daisher and China's "Flying Man" Xu Kai performed their first skydive from the bridge. Daisheris, an adventurer, holds the Guinness Book of World Records for world's most skydives.

After the successful performance, Daisher said it was his 3,838 skydive in 20 years.

"We have to land onto a floating target because the landing area is all water down below and then there are trees all along the river. It's more difficult to land on a floating dot than it is to land on a dry riverbank like in Colorado. It's absolutely dangerous but I'm excited that there is beautiful green down there although the cliffs are actually bigger and taller here in China," Daisher said.

Zong Ting, chief architect of the project, said the bridge foundation is strong enough to support more than 500 kg per square meter and the structure can withstand a14-scale typhoon and an 8.0-magnitude earthquake.

With 150 square meters of 50 pieces of glass walls and floor panels, the bridge offers visitors unobstructed view of the Longgang canyon.