If you thought Twin Peaks was suspenseful, test your mettle on the new glass-bottomed Brave Man’s Bridge connecting two cliffs in the Hunan province of China and spanning nearly 1,000 feet.

Located in the Shiniuzhai National Geological Park (images by Sina), the bridge employees a new type of glass 25 times stronger than the ordinary variety, achieving its structural purpose despite being just 1 inch thick.

Framed in steel, the converted bridge previously held wooden walking platforms, but to compete with the rise of glass walkways around the world these were swapped out for glass equivalents.

While there are other similarly glass-bottomed bridges arcing out over canyons or crossing natural expanses, this is the longest glass suspension bridge to date. Its engineers have assured the public that it is safe, even if feisty tourists jump on the panels.

Update: just days after opening, a mug dropped by a tourist has already cracked one of the glass panels, though without compromising its structural integrity.  Lee Dong Hai posted about his experience on social media: “I was almost at the end and suddenly I heard a sound, my foot shook a little. I looked down and I saw that there was a crack in the floor.”

Dangling precariously from cliffs, tumbling down hillsides or jutting out over the water, these beautiful seaside homes feature mirage-like rooftop infinity pools, diving boards that lead nowhere, terrifying drop-offs and terraces that seem to float.

Mirage House with Rooftop Infinity Pool

The glimmer of water on the rooftop of this incredible home on Greece’s Tinos Island seems like a mirage at first, encompassing the entirety of a flat, rectangular surface. Come closer and you’ll see that it’s not a mirage at all – it’s an infinity pool on the cantilevered rooftop of a modern home by Kois Associated Architects. The home was designed to blend into the Aegean Sea so as to be virtually undetectable, with the visible parts of the front of the home mimicking the surrounding stone.

Dangling Modular Cliff House

All that can be seen of this five-level modular home from ground level is the very top portion. The rest dangles in rather terrifying fashion over the roiling water, producing an effect that’s worthy of a Bond villain. Cliff House by Modscape Concept makes use of a challenging plot of land on a rocky portion of the southwest coast of Victoria in Australia. Each floor has glass walls for maximum views, and the whole thing is anchored to the cliff with engineered steel pins.

Actually Affordable Elevated Ocean Views

It’s rare that elevated homes with stunning views of the sea are actually affordable, but Canadian firm Mackay-Lyons Sweetapple Architects has created a modest timber box that juts out over a bedrock cliff to make it seem as if it’s floating. Clad in wood to blend into the environment, the 960-square-foot cabin has a galvanized steel frame skeleton and diagonal planks supported by joists to eliminate the need for interior cladding.

Retrofuturistic Mushroom House

Sam Bell’s retrofuturistic Mushroom House is tucked away next to the Pacific Ocean in the cliffs of San Diego, its round design offering panoramic views, a concrete sea wall and elevated living area keeping it from being inundated by the waves. And if you’re wondering just how the owners even access it, there’s an elevator stretching up the cliff face to a larger home above.

Dizzying Drop-Off House Design

What looks like a diving board jutting out of the end of this concrete house in Japan by KA Architects leads nowhere but a cascading rocky cliff, so you probably don’t want to actually jump. The all-white home is all about sharp lines and stark contrast, with no transition between the street and the outdoor room that can be seen on the top level.

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Seaside Stunners 14 Cliff Clinging Houses With Crazy Views

An iconic new mixed-use development in the heart of Montpellier in southern France, L’Arbre Blanc (The White Tree) grew out of a design concept tied to the outdoor traditions of this temperate region along the Mediterranean Sea.

Spinning out from a central core, the design-defining balconies unfold brilliantly to offer upper-level residents an array of amazing panoramic views while providing shade for units below.

This collaborative project by Sou Fujimoto Architects, Nicolas Laisné Associés and Manal Rachdi Oxo Architects (via ArchDaily with images by RSI Studio) includes a restaurant, bar, offices and art gallery in addition to dwellings.

Set in the fastest-growing city in France, the building is designed as a transition point between the heart of the old city and a series of faster-growing neighborhoods surrounding the existing center.

A series of passive heating and cooling strategies, including wind and solar usage, reinforce the tree concept with practical and sustainable solutions for everyday occupants.

In terms of the housing units themselves: “The architects sought to encourage free-choice architecture, which they see as underpinning tomorrow’s housing trend where everyone starts with a ‘housing stock’ when they buy their flat and are not confined to manufactured articles, regimented layouts, turnkey spaces. Instead they are given possibilities, modular interior spaces they can choose from a catalogue of optional features and floor plans.”

New York’s elevated park is expanding in new directions both physically and proverbially, its new addition a stark circular shift from the overall linear nature of the existing spaces.

Situated at the intersection of West 30th Street and 10th Avenue, the lush green Spur is at the heart of the new High Line section, providing a fresh kind of urban gathering, interaction and performance space.

Converting more disused rail tracks into raised green space, the nest-like bowl of seating and vegetation provides both background sound relief from the surrounding city and views back out onto its streets below.

Designed by James Corner Field Operations in collaboration with Diller Scofidio + Renfro, this pivotal turning point (quite literally a bend in the overall plan of the park) features woodland grasses, maples, perennials and ferns. The rest of the park bends up into the rail yards at this key point, wrapping back west across Manhattan toward the Hudson River.