Think of it like comparing a heavy iron chain to a modern climbing rope. Even though the iron chain is much heavier, the climbing rope can actually hold more weight before it snaps because it is made of thousands of high-strength micro-fibers bundled together. GFRP works the same way: it isn't a solid block of heavy metal, but a "super-bundle" of incredibly strong glass threads locked inside a tough resin. While steel is "dead weight" that mostly just holds itself up, every gram of GFRP is designed specifically to pull and hold a load. This gives it a tensile strength—its ability to resist being pulled apart—that is often double that of standard construction steel. Because it doesn't rust or "tire out" like metal does, it stays at that maximum strength for decades, even in wet or salty conditions where steel would simply crumble away.