US Edition Thousands of thrill-seeking tourists have been making the trek across the bridge, which is suspended 300 feet (91 metres) above a scenic forested valley between Morsdorf and Sosberg in Germany.
Tourism officials are hoping the new bridge will help promote hiking trails in the area and draw around 180,000 visitors every year, boosting the local economy by €2.5 million (£1.8million), the local news website Swr.de reports.
The construction of the bridge, which is supported by steel ropes on its left and right sides, began in May this year and was completed in a record 130 days.
The latest launch follows last week's opening of a glass-bottomed suspension bridge in China, which sits 180 metres above a valley in the Shiniuzhai National Geological Park of the Hunan province. The walkway’s 24mm-thick glass panes are 25 times stronger than other forms of glass, allowing it to “stand firm even if tourists are jumping on it”, a worker who built the bridge told the China News Service.
Later this year, the country is planning to open another glass bridge, designed by the architect Haim Dotan, across the Zhangjiajie Grand Canyon area of the Hunan province. Spanning 430 metres long and 300 metres high, it is set to be the world’s highest glass bridge once completed.
Germany's new bridge is one of several vertigo-inducing attractions that have been unveiled recently in China and around the world.
Last summer, Russia unveiled the 439-metre-long SkyBridge, which was described as “the world’s longest walkway” at the time. Standing 207 metres above the Krasnaya Polyana valley near Sochi, the footbridge includes two observation platforms, each offering panoramic views of the surrounding mountains and the Black Sea coast.
Last year, Zhangjiajie also built a cliff-side glass-bottomed pathway around 1,500 metres above sea level on the side of the Tianmen Mountain. The 3ft-wide and 2.5 in-thick glass skywalk was said to have been designed to “shatter but not break” should a stone fall onto it from the mountain, according to a spokesperson for the local tourism board at the time.
Closer to home, London opened its own glass walkway atop Tower Bridge last November, though the numbers don’t quite stack up against its Chinese rivals.
Elsewhere in Europe, a glass-bottomed viewing box at 3,842 metres above sea level opened near Chamonix, France, in 2013. The five-sided cube juts out above the Chamonix Valley a kilometre below, offering a rather unsettling place to stand and enjoy views of the Mont Blanc Massif mountain range.