Highest bridge unveiled at more than 2,000ft above ground • Hacker News Board

Re: Highest bridge unveiled at more than 2,000ft above ground

#41

Post by sour-taste » Thu, Oct 02, 2025, 11:54 PM UTC

screye wrote: post #15

Very impressive. The economic angle is a bit confusing. Wonder why China thought this was a worthy investment. Guizhou is a poor part of China, without much international tourism or trade. Wikipedia indicates it is meant to increase tourism, but even China's most attractive regions (Beijing, Shanghai, Great Wall, Chengdu, Chongqing) are under-visited. I can't imagine that Guizhou will be on foreign tourist's agenda f…

Having spent a lot of time in Japan, construction there was a way to provide money to poor regions. You build some big project and pay people good wages and encourage growth of local industry. Not saying it's good or bad but the economics may be secondary to these goals

Re: Highest bridge unveiled at more than 2,000ft above ground

#42

Post by intalentive » Thu, Oct 02, 2025, 11:55 PM UTC

cadamsdotcom wrote: post #22

Chinese bridge, designed by Chinese engineers, built by Chinese workers, captured with (we assume) a Chinese drone. What a spectacular scene. I am proud on behalf of all the people who worked together to achieve this.

A confident, unified people under competent leadership can accomplish great things. I wish the Chinese continued success and hope their example eventually spurs the development of a new ruling class in the West.

Re: Highest bridge unveiled at more than 2,000ft above ground

#43

Post by ajmurmann » Thu, Oct 02, 2025, 11:58 PM UTC

presentation wrote: post #24

Freedom2 wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is there any reason why you believe the US isn't that country?

Rightists are scared of energy sources beyond coal and oil; leftists are scared of information technology that could replace human workers; homeowners are scared to make any physical changes to their neighborhoods and cities because it would "change the neighborhood character"; legislators are scared/incapable of making any fundamental changes to governance because it would be difficult, and can't agree on anything;…

I wonder if two things are massive factors in this:

a) The US is already prosperous. When you have much too lose, your mental trade-offs between gaining something and losing what you have become different.

b) US politics has been dominated by the massive post-war generation. It seems like we drastically stopped building when the boomers had bought their first homes.

Both of these also work for other Western countries that also stopped building.

Re: Highest bridge unveiled at more than 2,000ft above ground

#44

Post by NooneAtAll3 » Thu, Oct 02, 2025, 11:59 PM UTC

screye wrote: post #15

Very impressive. The economic angle is a bit confusing. Wonder why China thought this was a worthy investment. Guizhou is a poor part of China, without much international tourism or trade. Wikipedia indicates it is meant to increase tourism, but even China's most attractive regions (Beijing, Shanghai, Great Wall, Chengdu, Chongqing) are under-visited. I can't imagine that Guizhou will be on foreign tourist's agenda f…

> Wonder why China thought this was a worthy investment. Guizhou is a poor part of China

I mean... that's exactly the reason?

Government funds get used to improve poorer regions to spread development. Improving transport links is a good way to do that

Plus it connects the country, which helps long-term stability

Think of these as more of interstate highways kind of projects

Re: Highest bridge unveiled at more than 2,000ft above ground

#45

Post by margalabargala » Fri, Oct 03, 2025, 12:08 AM UTC

wak90 wrote: post #19

margalabargala wrote: post #12

Did this part concern anyone else? > Last month, a team of engineers deployed 96 trucks to strategic points across the bridge to recreate heavy traffic conditions to ensure it would not buckle. Reminds me of this https://featureassets.gocomics.com/assets/74c15210deb9013171...

They deploy trucks to see how the bridge vibrates.

And to ensure it would not buckle, per the article.

Implying they were not sure it would not buckle, until they drove the trucks on.

Re: Highest bridge unveiled at more than 2,000ft above ground

#46

Post by stevage » Fri, Oct 03, 2025, 12:17 AM UTC

hackthemack wrote: post #10

I was curious about the drone footage mentioned in the article. Here is a link to a video of a fly over. https://www.msn.com/en-us/video/news/world%E2%80%99s-tallest...

That link doesn't seem to work.

Re: Highest bridge unveiled at more than 2,000ft above ground

#47

Post by stevage » Fri, Oct 03, 2025, 12:18 AM UTC

VariousPrograms wrote: post #14

As someone who doesn't keep up with bridge news, China seems to have a monopoly on incredible new mountain bridges. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_highest_bridges

They do also have a lot of incredible mountains that would benefit from bridges. There aren't that many 600m deep canyons in the world.

Re: Highest bridge unveiled at more than 2,000ft above ground

#48

Post by stevage » Fri, Oct 03, 2025, 12:19 AM UTC

margalabargala wrote: post #45

wak90 wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They deploy trucks to see how the bridge vibrates.

And to ensure it would not buckle, per the article. Implying they were not sure it would not buckle, until they drove the trucks on.

Well, that's how it was reported, but not necessarily accurate.

Re: Highest bridge unveiled at more than 2,000ft above ground

#49

Post by stevage » Fri, Oct 03, 2025, 12:20 AM UTC

jamie_ca wrote: post #36

JumpinJack_Cash wrote: post #31

Part of me seeing the record and the whole artificial waterfall gave me a sense that it's not a race anymore, we already lost. On the other hand...we won the space race and we went to the moon, except only 15 guys or thereabout went and for the rest of us didn't mean anything substantial at all.

Lots of tech was developed and commercialized as a byproduct of the space program. https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/infographics/20-inventions-we-would...

Very poor return on investment if you look at it only in those terms.

Re: Highest bridge unveiled at more than 2,000ft above ground

#50

Post by maxglute » Fri, Oct 03, 2025, 2:56 AM UTC

screye wrote: post #15

Very impressive. The economic angle is a bit confusing. Wonder why China thought this was a worthy investment. Guizhou is a poor part of China, without much international tourism or trade. Wikipedia indicates it is meant to increase tourism, but even China's most attractive regions (Beijing, Shanghai, Great Wall, Chengdu, Chongqing) are under-visited. I can't imagine that Guizhou will be on foreign tourist's agenda f…

> reduces travel time between the two sides of the canyon from two hours to two minutes.

Think of it this way.

Every 2 hours round trip to 2 minutes saves imported fossil. For trucking/freight that's like ~$80 of diesel both ways.

PRC construction workers, though less abundant is cheaper than it ever will be. So best time to build infra is always now, especially one that reduces long tail imports.

Every piece of infra that cuts time (apart from cutting X time) is basically frontloading (domestic) steel and concrete to reduce future oil imports (and emissions). Rough napkin math, 2B rmb construction cossts = ~3m barrels of oil, 2b kms of travel. Shaving off 2hrs (guestimate ~150km) and it pays itself off in imported fuel metric between ~10m trips (for freight , more for passenger). Guizhou has 40m people, if a fraction goes to see the bridge, do some tourist shit (induced demand) it would go a long way to basically subsidize a bridge that cut logistics times and wear on tear for the region.