The world's longest pedestrian suspension bridge opens in Portugal (VIDEO)

The new landmark appeared in the north of Portugal, in the Arouca Geopark near the town of the same name, The Guardian reports. It is the longest pedestrian suspension bridge in the world - Arouca 516. It connects the verdant mountains, between which the fast Paiva River runs.

The steel bridge, stretched between two pillars, took two years to build. The first people to receive permission to pass through it through the gorge were the inhabitants of Arouki. Everybody recognized that a half-kilometer walk on a shaky mesh structure at a dizzying height was not for the faint of heart. Locals hope the new attraction will attract adrenaline lovers from around the world, generate money and rejuvenate an aging community.

The Arouca Geopark, through which the bridge is laid, is also noteworthy. This is an open-air geological museum, taken under the protection of UNESCO. The geopark is famous for an impressive collection of trilobites and a geological phenomenon called "birth stones": the local granite boulders, under the influence of erosion, throw stones the size of pebbles onto the surface. Several rivers flow through Arouku, so here you can go canyoning, kayaking, rock climbing.

The title of the longest pedestrian suspension bridge in the world, the Arouca 516 bridge was intercepted by the Charles Kuonen Bridge, which was built in 2017 near the village of Randa in the Swiss Alps.