Portugal's Institute for Research and Technological Development for Construction, Energy, Environment and Sustainability has completed a 516-metre-long pedestrian suspension bridge named 516 Arouca in northern Portugal.
Built in the Arouca Geopark, the 516-metre-long bridge is suspended 175-metres above the Paiva river and links two hills with granite cliff faces.
Top: the 516 Arouca bridge is 516-metres-long. Above: it stretches over the Pavia Gorge
The bridge was built by Institute for Research and Technological Development for Construction, Energy, Environment and Sustainability as a tourist attraction for the Arouca area, providing views across the Pavia Gorge and toward the nearby Aguieiras Waterfall.
It is located next to the Paiva Walkways, an eight-kilometre-long trail path that winds through the Arouca hills. "A remarkable work of national engineering and will certainly be one of the most iconic structures in the municipality of Arouca and in the country and that will surely become a landmark of modernity," said Arouca's mayor Margarida Belém.
The walkway is made up of 127 interlocking metal cages
The structure is now Europe's longest pedestrian suspension bridge, surpassing Switzerland's 494-metre-long Charles Kuonen Bridge.
The developers believe that the bridge is also the world's longest pedestrian suspension bridge, although the Baglung Parbat Footbridge in Nepal also claims this title.
"It is the largest in the world, as we always said,"...