China Tests Glass Bridge by Striking it with a Sledgehammer

China is becoming famous for building glass pedestrian bridges, but many are still too scared to ever walk across the precarious pathways. Whether you think they are good ideas or not, the glass bridges are quite the adrenaline rush to walk across, especially when they crack while people are on it, like the last bridge did. In order to prove to everyone their safety, crews designing the new bridge decided to invite BBC to come swing a sledgehammer into a pane, while standing on it. This video will probably make your palms sweaty, would you trust the engineers enough to break the glass under your feet?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=guWLBG-htrU

The walkway being built spans 1,400 feet across the Zhangjiajie Grand Canyon where visitors will be able to have an experience of a lifetime, according to InHabitat. Not everyone wants to walk across a giant glass bridge, but those who do probably don't want it to break underneath their feet. The panes used to build the walkway aren't your ordinary glass, it has several different layers of high-strength composite glass sheets. All this glass is similar to the glass used on the previous Chinese glass bridge which shattered after a visitor dropped a mug. . . safe.

[Image Source: BBC]

Each layer of the glass bridge can withstand around 12 blows from a heavy sledgehammer, all the while holding the necessary weight. This would mean that someone would really need to be trying to destroy the bridge to do any harm, and it would take a long time at that point. So, glass bridges are just about as safe as normal bridges, they just give the added bonus of feeling incredibly dangerous.

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