After a striking glass tourist bridge opened in Indonesia with limited access, a video spread online with a false claim that it showed the new attraction. However, the clip actually shows China’s viral ‘bending bridge’, which was inaugurated in September 2020 and has a different design from Indonesia’s bridge.
“The Glass Bridge of Bromo,” read a Facebook post shared on November 6, 2024, with an aerial video of people walking on a curved bridge surrounded by mountains.
Bromo is a tourist destination in East Java on the main island of Indonesia, known for its active volcano. The region opened a new glass bridge in August, but with limited access (archived link).
Screenshot of the fake post, captured on November 21, 2024
The video was viewed more than 300,000 times in similar posts on Facebook, Instagram and X, claiming to show the new bridge in Bromo.
However, the video actually shows a pedestrian bridge in Zhejiang province in eastern China.
‘Bending bridge’
A Google reverse image search found a similar video shared on November 3 by an Instagram account that posts about tourism in China (archived link).
According to the Instagram post, the bridge is located in the Shenxianju Scenic Area of Taizhou in China’s Zhejiang province.
Below is a screenshot comparison between the video seen in the fake post (left) and on Instagram (right):
Screenshot comparison between the video seen in the fake post (left) and on the Instagram account (right)
The Ruyi Bridge – which consists of three bridges with partially glass decks – opened in September 2020, according to an article by state-run newspaper China Daily published on the provincial government website (archived link).
The striking structure spans 100 meters (328 feet) across the Shenxianju Valley and stands at a height of 140 meters (460 feet).
A photo from Chinese photo agency Imaginechina, available in AFP archives, shows the bridge with the caption that it was taken in Zhejiang (archived link).
Meanwhile, the new bridge in Indonesia, the Seruni Point Bridge, is also located in a scenic spot overlooking Mount Bromo, but has a straight design, according to Radar Bromo TV (archived link).
Below is the screenshot comparison between the fake video (left) and the Bromo Bridge on Radar Bromo TV (right):
Screenshot comparison between the fake video (left) and an actual image of the Bromo Glass Bridge (right)
