The Most Terrifying Bridges In The World

As long as man has been building roads, we have been building bridges. Beginning with stones and wood, architects and engineers would construct safe, non-threatening passage for travelers and their goods.

Over time, the structures became larger, longer and taller, made of cement, steel, glass and cable, some stretchingfor miles over lakes, ravines and mountains. Impressive as they have become, the more fear-inducing they have become as well.

Here are 25 of the most terrifying bridges in the world.

You won't have to look over the side of this bridge to get a view, just look down at your feet. At a height of 984 feet and 1,410 feet long, Grand Canyon Glass Bridge is the world's longest and highest glass-bottomed bridge. It has been billed as both breathtakingly beautiful and paralyzingly terrifying at the same time.

Completed in 2004, the Langkawi Sky Bridge, at 410 feet, is the longest free span and curved bridge In the world. Located at the top of the Machinchang mountain, this cable-stayed bridge will give you 360 degree views of the Andaman Sea below. The bridge is only 6 feet wide and it curves out over the side of the mountain and is suspended by only a single pylon.

This is a short span of bridge, but it is not for the faint of heart. Located 12,602 feet up in the French Alps along the Mont Blanc massif, Aiguille du Midi's terraces offer 360-degree views of French, Swiss and Italian Alps. If the idea of standing on a terrace hanging on the side of a mountain doesn't scare you enough, you can always step into a glass cage that juts out over the precipice of the mountain.

This rope bridge was first used in 1755 for fishermen to get between the mainland and the island of Carrickarede to cast their fishing nets. The bridge is 98 feet above the rocky shoreline and does tend to sway in the gusty wind. If you do make it across to the island, and find that it was way too much to handle, don't worry; some have been taken back to the mainland by boat.

Taking a walk on the wild side is how capbridge.com bills this terrifying suspension bridge. Located outside Vancouver over the Capilano River, 230 feet above a canopy of evergreen trees, is a view that will take your breath away (if you are breathing at all at this point). If the thought of crossing this 460-foot span doesn't scare you to death, just think how it must have felt back in 1889 when the original bridge was made from hemp ropes and cedar planks.

Over the river Tarn near Millau in southern France stands the 1,125-foot-tall, cable-stayed Millau Viaduct bridge. One of the pylons holding up the bridge is the tallest structure in France, taller than the Effiel Tower. If the height of the bridge wasn't terrifying enough when it first opened, the speed limit of 81 mph would have had you white-knuckled while driving across. Due to tourists slowing down to take photos the limit was reduced slightly to 68 mph, but still considered way too fast for driving in the clouds.

According to vladivostok-city.com, this is one of the five largest bridges in the world at 4,554 feet long. You will get a pit in your stomach from miles away as you drive up to the unusual configuration of its pylons. You get the impression that the support pylons are pulling away from the deck of the bridge or you are driving between the horns of Satan. Either way, a prayer wouldn't hurt crossing this one.

At 10,000 feet above sea level, suspended 1,500 feet above a glacier, this pedestrian walkway is Europe's highest suspension bridge. People didn't know how terrifying the bridge was on opening day back in 2012 because a snowstorm hid the view beneath the bridge. When the storm cleared and people saw the abyss below, it was declared the most vertigo-inducing, scariest bridge in the world by the Daily Mail.

Built from salvaged wood from pieces of a dismantled teak palace around 1850, this bridge is said to be the longest of its type in the world. The bridge spans 3,937 feet across Taugthaman Lake in Amarapura, Myanmar. Anxiety is peaked half way across when you realize just how old the structure is and how reliable it will be on the second half of your trek.

No need to worry crossing this bridge. If your anxiety kicks in at the foot of this 4.3-mile span, they have a Drive Over Service that will take you across. This is a dual-span bridge that stretches over the Chesapeake Bay and reaches a height of 186 feet. Most will say the height isn't the problem, it's the weather. If fog and heavy weather hit, you will be blind to the other shore line, making the trip even more terrifyingly long.

Poised above the Trift Glacier in the Swiss Alps, this pedestrian-only bridge spans 560 feet at a height of 330 feet. The pilgrimage just to get to the bridge will scare a good deal of tourists off before they even hit the peak. The climb starts by taking a cable car in Meiringen, followed by a gondola and finally, a difficult two-hour uphill hike to the mouth of the bridge.

According to confederationbridge.com, this is the worlds longest curved bridge to span ice-covered water. The 8-mile bridge joins the eastern Canadian provinces of Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick. The two-lane toll bridge opened to traffic in 1997, after 4 years of construction at a cost of 1.3 billion dollars. The fright level isnt so much the height of 131 feet, as much as it is the high winds that can make your car sway over nothing but miles and miles of ice.

Some will thrill at this crossing, but most will find it tough. Once again we have a bridge that has a service for the faint-hearted. 24/7 and for free, a call to The Mackinac Bridge Authority's Drivers Assistance Program will provide you with a driver over the bridge. The crossing is 5 miles at a height of 199 feet; it connects Michigan's Upper and Lower Peninsulas. The height and the wind, which often exceeds 30 mph, keep the driver assistance program busy all year long.

The ghosts of the past make this crossing the most horrifying. On May 9, 1980, disaster struck the Skyway Bridge when a 600-foot cargo ship struck the support causing a segment of the bridge to collapse. Seven cars and a Greyhound bus fell over the edge and 35 people died. The new bridge was opened in 1987, replacing the partly destroyed bridge constructed in 1954.

At 956 feet above the Arkansas River near Canon City, Colo., is the Royal Gorge Bridge. The bridge held the record for the highest until 2001. Even at this height, you can still see whitewater rafters on the rapids below. If you and your feet are too terrified to step foot on the bridge, you do have the option of taking a gondola the 1,260 feet across the canyon. And you can close your eyes the entire trip.

This bridge is the 21st longest suspension bridge in the world, at a length of 5,118 feet. It is one of two bridges that spans the Bosphorus Strait, connecting the European and Asian sides of Istanbul and was the first bridge to connect Europe and Asia since a bridge spanning the Dardanelles in 480 B.C. The fear factor on this drive is the dangerous distraction level. In 2007, an LED lighting system was installed on the structure and every night there is a computerized light show.

The old bridge, initially a railroad bridge, completed in 1912 was considered the "Eighth Wonder of the World," according to visitflorida.com. The new bridge connecting the Florida mainland to the Keys was finished in 1982 and is the longest in the keys. If you concentrate on the beautiful turquoise water you won't have a problem, but if you're the least bit claustrophobic be cautious. For seven miles there is only one lane north and one lane south, with a shoulder only wide enough for a motorcycle to change a tire. You're held captive and at the mercy of other drivers' speeds and braking habits with no way out.

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982, this bridge is recognized for its engineering and elegant architecture. The two-lane bridge that connects Whidbey Island to Fidalgo Island was completed in 1935 and has 20,000 cars crossing it a day. Either by car or walking on the narrow pedestrian lane, you will hear and see the deep and turbulent channel below. This might not seem too unnerving, but wait till the blinding fog rolls in.

Strung across one of Japan's three "hidden" valleys, 45 feet above the floor, are bridges made of wisteria vines woven together and thin wooden walking planks with 8- to 12-inch gaps between them. No one knows how old the bridges are and some historians date them back to the 1100s. One good thing to know is that the bridges are remade every three years because of the fragile materials. But would you cross a bridge that has to be rebuilt every three years?

These precariously hung suspension bridges swing 130 feet above the thick jungle of Kakum National Park. The elevated trail opened in 1995 and consists of more than 1,000 feet of walkway. No one can blame you for turning around once you see what appears to be a rope bridge made from the materials of the forest, but don't be fooled: The spans are made of wire rope and aluminum.

This is billed as the world's longest bridge over a body of water by thecauseway.us. This 24-mile-long bridge over Lake Ponchartrain connects New Orleans to Mandeville. This structure is a fixed link bridge composed of two parallel bridges at a height of 15 feet. This sounds like a nice smooth and pleasant trip, but you would be suprised by what police who patrol the bridge have reported. Some drivers get to the middle of the bridge and can't see land on either side and panic. This is when the police come to the rescue and finish the drive for them.

This bridge located on South Island was first built to help miners as early as 1886. It was low to the water and would flood often. It was rebuilt twice, with the second finished in 1901. The structure is about 315 feet long and roughly 300 feet high making it the highest suspension bridge in New Zealand. The fear factor here: The car deck is only 7 feet wide. Who's going to back up if someone coming from the other side meets you in the middle?

The Hangzhou is three lanes each way and 23 miles long, making it the longest ocean-crossing bridge. The bridge opened in 2008 over Hangzhou Bay. The bridge is unusual because of its S-shape construction on a cable stayed bridge. This reason for this odd configuration is the reason most drivers feel tense over this long journey: The bridge form and construction were dictated by the extremely high winds during typhoon season, earthquakes and some of the highest tidal forces on the planet. Make sure you look at the forecast before your drive.

This bone-chilling overpass replaces an older road stretching along the top of a mountain with drops of hundreds of feet on either side called the Devli's Backbone. The Baluarte Bridge that opened in 2012 is the third-highest cable-stayed bridge in the world at 1,322 feet above the valley below. It links the municipalities of Concordia in Sinaloa and Pueblo Nuevo in Durango with a length of 1,322 feet. Although by-passing of the notorious Devil's Backbone has made the journey safer, it makes it no less terrorizing to a driver with a fear of heights. Backbone required on this one.

This towering bridge spans the Eastern Bosphorus strait, connecting the Russky Island and the Muravyov-Amursky Peninsula. This is another cable-stayed bridge, but the world's longest, with a central span of 3,622 feet, according to russiatrek.org. The bridge also has the second highest pylons at 1,062 feet, which can make this bridge more distracting looking up than looking over the side. On more than one occasion adrenaline-junkies have been spotted climbing the pylons completely unharnessed.