GUIYANG - The world's tallest bridge opened to traffic Sunday morning in Southwest China's Guizhou province, slashing travel time across a deep canyon from two hours to just two minutes after three years of construction.

The Huajiang Grand Canyon Bridge, soaring 625 meters above the Beipan River in Guizhou's mountainous terrain, is nearly nine times as tall as San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge.

ALSO READ: World's highest bridges in China become a magnet for extreme sports enthusiasts

With a main span of 1,420 meters, the project has become the world's longest-span steel truss girder suspension bridge in mountainous terrain, according to Guizhou provincial authorities.

Spanning the Huajiang Grand Canyon, dubbed "the Earth's crack", the 2,890-meter-long structure is the latest addition to the rapidly expanding infrastructure network of the world's second-largest economy.

The former world's tallest bridge, which spans the Beipan River, is situated approximately 100 km from the Huajiang Grand Canyon Bridge. The previous record-holder, opened in 2016, has a vertical clearance of 565.4 meters from the bridge deck to the river surface below.

"The new bridge, which will greatly enhance regional connectivity, is a landmark project that showcases China's innovation," said Zhang Yin, head of the provincial transportation department.

The bridge has achieved multiple technological breakthroughs in its wind-resistance design and high-altitude bridge construction, obtaining 21 authorized patents. Several of its technological innovations have been incorporated into national bridge construction standards, Zhang added.

Since the bridge's construction began, the building team has overcome immense challenges posed by the grand canyon. By leveraging a suite of new technologies, including satellite navigation, drones, smart monitoring systems, and ultra-high-strength materials, they achieved millimeter-level precision in high-altitude construction, transforming a once-impassable barrier into a transportation corridor.

Over the years, Guizhou, one of China's least developed provinces, has constructed over 30,000 bridges in its mountainous terrain, including three of the world's tallest. The province is home to nearly half of the world's 100 tallest bridges.

The combined length of Guizhou's existing and under-construction bridges currently exceeds 5,400 km, a distance nearly equal to China's north-to-south span.