The Weird Machine China Uses To Build Bridges

You'd think that construction would be fairly similar around the globe. Once you have a standard set of tools, you can do just about anything with them, right? It's not like a screwdriver or a hammer are going to change much between here and Outer Mongolia, right? They won't let you do something in India that you can't do in Topeka. 

Nevertheless, some countries have found their own ways of doing things. It's hard to say whether they're better or worse, but they seem to work because they've been using their methods for a while now. They're certainly different – just look at how they build bridges in China.

In the West, we're quite content to use cranes to lift girders into place when we're building bridges. 

Cranes do the job well, and better still, they're versatile enough to do other jobs too. In China, however, they use a massive machine designed for just that one purpose.

The SLJ900/32 is 300 feet long, 24 feet wide, and weighs 580 tons. 

It carries a considerable crew with it as well, who have to prepare each platform and install each girder as they go. 

The machine crawls along, stretching out over open space until the front reaches the next support platform, where it sets down its arms and drops a girder into place.

It looks like some precarious work – but hey, it works!

Check out this crazy machine in action below!

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