Three hundred feet above the valley floor, a suspension bridge gently sways and bobs as pedestrians cross its 1,621-foot length through the Swiss Alps. These impressive stats have helped the Charles Kuonen Suspension Bridge in Switzerland break previous records, making it the longest pedestrian suspension bridge in the world.

Sure, the glass-floored bridge in China is higher and forces you to look down from your precarious position, but this bridge is almost as scary, considering that it’s not stationary and measures just two feet wide. That means you have to march down its length single-file, making it harder to clutch onto others for dear life.

The bridge was completed in 10 weeks by Swissrope and offers magnificent views of the surrounding mountains, including the Bernese Alps and Matterhorn (if you manage to look up and enjoy them instead of staring at your feet and trying not to hyperventilate.) It features a grated metal floor, runs between 5,000-7,000 feet above sea level, and takes ten minutes to walk cross. The pass through the mountains previously took four hours to navigate.

Photos taken from the air (provided by the Switzerland Tourism Board) give us the best idea of the bridge’s scale. The Charles Kuonen Suspension Bridge links two sections of the Europaweg hiking trail, a two-day link between the towns of Zermatt and Grächen, and replaces an older bridge that was damaged by falling rocks. It’s named for its primary sponsor.

Many a cyclist has fantasized about being able to bike right over the chaos of a city, avoiding traffic, intersections and trouble areas so they can just enjoy the ride. A Dutch architecture firm has made this fantasy into a reality with a continuous bike bridge that crosses the Amsterdam-Rhine Canal in Utrecht and then loops right over an adjacent university building’s roof. Officially open this week, ‘Dafne Schippers Bicycle Bridge’ by NEXT Architecture reclaims urban space for people who aren’t driving vehicles.

It’s unusual to see a bridge so seamlessly integrated into adjacent infrastructure on land in a way that’s interactive with the public, while also performing an important service. Measuring 360 feet long, the bicycle bridge connects the old Oog in Al section of Utrecht with new district Leidsche Rijn.

Open to both cyclists and pedestrians, it lifts up off the ground in Victor Hugo Park, reaches a pinnacle of nearly 115 feet above the surface of the water, and continues onto the roof of a local Montessori school.The bridge then loops around a public garden before once again reaching ground level.

Commissioned by the city of Utrecht, the structure will save more than 7,000 cyclists time on their route each day. The architects wanted the bridge to connect the bicycle route, park and school in a single fluid movement, creating a cohesive landscape. With the bicycle bridge on the south side, space for a recreational area is created on the north side, oriented toward a park.

It would be cool to see architects take inspiration from NEXT’s creation to the next level, building something even more complex that’s lifted above the busy streets of an urban center.

Twice a day, when the tides go down, this causeway appears to connect the French mainland to the island of Noirmoutier, but cross quickly or the road will disappear, stranding you in the middle of the Bay of Bourgneuf. The Passage du Gois was built upon a strip of silt that just barely elevates it above the surface during low tide for a little over an hour at a time. Crossers often wait too long to get started, bet that they’ll be able to make it across, and lose.

Once it starts flooding, it happens quickly. That’s why there are elevated rescue towers located along the stretch – you might just have to swim over to one, climb up and wait it out. When the tide is low, abandoned, ruined cars can be seen littering the sand.

Each year, runners gather for the Foulées du Gois, a race across the causeway. The road also tends to be covered with seashells, making it a popular destination for both souvenir-seeking tourists and locals who look for edible shellfish.

Photos via Flickr Creative Commons: garder le cap, ludovic, pics by brian, oliver gobin, alain bachellier, marc bourbon, oliver hankeln, wikimedia commons

The Olympic symbol consisting of five interlinked circles is stretched out and rotated until the links create a three-dimensional double helix formation in this bridge design, which is scheduled to become reality in Beijing in time for the Olympic Winter Games in 2022. China has already made it clear that it’s willing to go big when it comes to Olympic architecture, filling Beijing with a series of massive structures for the 2008 Summer Olympics, and it aims to make its next turn hosting just as memorable. The San Shan Bridge (3 Mountains Bridge) by architecture firm Penda will connect Beijing with the city of Zhangjiakou, where most of the outdoor events for the Games will take place.

Spanning China’s Gui River, the San Shan Bridge is supported by the double-helix structure made up of three sets of undulating steel arches that cross above and below the road surface, dipping into the water. The deck is suspended from the higher arches using high-strength steel cables in a woven pattern. Four vehicular lanes are edged with greenery, which separates the cars from pedestrian paths on either side. Using up to 5 times less steel than a conventional box girder bridge, the design is slim and lightweight in appearance despite its big visual impact.

The region surrounding the bridge is a popular recreation spot for locals and tourists alike, with booming growth leading to a need for more infrastructure. The bridge will not only provide a crucial (and highly memorable) artery from the city to the Olympic events, it’ll be a central component of the Beijing Expansion Masterplan. Nearly 1500 feet long, the bridge will take a few years to construct, but should be done by the time the Beijing Horticultural Expo 2019 rolls around.

You’d likely feel more than a little trepidation approaching this bridge head-on, wondering how in the world your car is going to drive straight up a nearly-vertical surface. Spanning Lake Nakaumi between Matsue and Sakaiminato in Japan, the Eshima Ohashi bridge has a gradient of 6.1 percent on one side and 5.1 on the other. The third largest rigid-frame bridge in the world, this intimidating structure is the nightmare of anyone with a bridge phobia, especially since it runs a full mile over the water.

When you see it from the side, it doesn’t look quite as dramatic, but the angle leading up to the apex is no joke. Its extraordinary height enables even the tallest of ships to pass under it without the need for a drawbridge, allowing traffic to continue between the two cities without interruption. It’s certainly not for the faint of heart.

Surpassing it in height is France’s MIllau Viaduct, which bests even the Eiffel Tower at over 885 feet from the ground. Still, imagine trying to drive over this thing on a foggy night, in the rain, or even worse, when the roads are slick from snow and ice. It seems like cars would just slip and slide right back down, which probably wouldn’t be as much fun as it sounds.