With nothing else like it in the world, the Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge is arguably our city’s finest structure. And it’s one with quite a tale to tell.
Back in 1916, the initial inspiration for a fixed crossing of the Yangtze at Nanjing was proposed at first by the Sino-British Bank. But after construction of the Shanghai to Nanjing Railway, the new government of the Republic of China chose instead to turn to French bridge experts to conduct a survey and feasibility study. They never received one.
More attempts were made in subsequent years, including the sending of Chinese personnel to both Europe and the USA in 1925 to look at exploiting their experience in train ferries. Later, in 1930, the Ministry of Railways of the National Government hired a foreign, so-called bridge expert, a certain John Walter. His conclusion was that it not be appropriate to build a bridge across the Yangtze at Nanjing.
Watching with unease the progress being made on the Wuhan Yangtze River Bridge upstream, built with the assistance of experts from the Soviet Union, and with a rising concern over a melting in Sino-Soviet relations, China chose to rely on its own strengths and rise to the challenge of completing the country’s most significant feat of engineering to date.
Thus, the-then Bridge Engineering Bureau sought proposals for the design of the bridgeheads. In March of 1960, three designs were shortlisted, out of a total of 57 submissions. Somewhat fittingly, a local design came out on tops, that submitted by Zhong Xunzheng of the Nanjing Institute of Technology, now Southeast University.
The winning design featured the now-legendary concrete abutments, each housing an elevator to take people up and and down from the bus stops on the bridge deck, and topped with statues of revolutionary figures, plus giant, distinctive, red steel Chinese flags.
It is here that a very familiar character enters our narrative. With the navy and the shipping department at loggerheads over the exact clearance necessary to permit the passage of 10,000-ton, ocean-going vessels, then General Secretary of the CPC Central Committee, Deng Xiaoping, settled the argument; there shall be 24 metres between the river and the underside of the steel spans.
Fully 8 years in the making, the Bridge comprised 384,100 cubic metres of concrete and 66,500 tons of steel. Between 1970 and 1993, it received more than 100 heads of state and government, and more than 600 foreign delegations. As something of a pilgrimage for many Chinese, the number of ordinary domestic and foreign tourists who have visited the Bridge is countless. In July 2014, the Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge was selected as an immovable cultural relic.
For the 50th anniversary of the Bridge’s opening, the structure was closed for 2 years for renovation; a strengthening of the grid work of girders that support the bridge and complete repairs of the approaches, together with a thorough makeover that included the removing of 50 years of pollution to restore the icon’s former lustre, and indeed its glory.
