RAW VIDEO: Dramatic Moment 70 Foot-High Bridge Comes Crashing Down As It's Demolished With 120kg Of Explosives

Spectacular drone footage has captured the moment a 70-metre-high bridge is demolished with 120kg of explosives in Germany. The 1,640-foot-long bridge joining two sides of a German valley was blasted to smithereens as footage captured its 230-foot collapse to the ground, setting the record as the tallest bridge ever taken down by demolition experts in the country. The demolition of the Rinsdorf viaduct, which allows the A45 freeway to cross the valley, took place near Wilnsdorf on Feb. 6 in the western German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. The blast had to be carefully calculated so that the bridge would fall onto the prepared bed below without damaging the replacement bridge that can be seen in the footage next to the obsolete one shortly before it was blown up. Numerous onlookers from the area reportedly showed up to watch the spectacle. “The successful blasting is an important step for the new construction in Rinsdorf,” Elfriede Sauerwein-Braksiek, director of the Westphalia Motorway Network, said after the demolition. “The long preparation for this day shows the complex tasks that the team of the Westphalia Motorway Network on the Sauerland line has had to face when building the viaducts.” There are reportedly 15 viaducts now under construction in the country’s most populous state. Sixty bridges there are said to be need of replacement or urgent repair. Two more bridge demolitions are scheduled to take place in 2022.