34 years ago today, Nanjing opened its first pedestrian bridge, the Huaihai Lu Pedestrian Bridge, pictured. While not the most significant of anniversaries, the commemoration makes for a worthy consideration of other achievements in the field of bridge construction.
With National Day the likely date for a grand reopening of Nanjing’s famous Yangtze River Bridge, its 50th anniversary, another bridge of the smashing records kind is set to open, one that will connect vast areas of China’s southern region.
The Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao bridge and tunnel is 55 km long, making it the world’s longest sea bridge; it is predicted to alleviate the flow of traffic for some 60 million people. According to ABC news, construction of the bridge has taken over 8 years to complete and has been marred by delays related to costs and even worker deaths.
Bridge building is considered worldwide as contributing greatly to a nation’s status. Known locally as Changjiang Daqiao, Nanjing’s very own bridge was the pride and joy of the communist party in 1960s China and a testament to its engineering skill at the time.
The Yangtze River Bridge was the first of its kind in China, being solely designed and built by Chinese engineers. The nation’s first across the Yangtze in Wuhan was only made possible with the help of the Russians. When it came to Nanjing, China was out to make a point, and did not mind taking 6 years to make it.
Nanjingers have long awaited the comeback of the Yangtze River Bridge as its closure for renovation has proved bothersome indeed for many who live in Pukou district.
Since its opening in 1968, China has more recently gone on to build some of the most significant bridges in the world, including the Zhangjiajie Glass Bridge, the Hangzhou Bay Bridge, the Lishui River Bridge and the Longjiang Bridge plus many many more that connect China internally and abroad. A famous example is the New Yalu River Bridge between China and North Korea, built as a successor to its namesake, but one that remains unopened, not on account of China. North Korea simply hasn’t built the roads at its end to connect the bridge.
Back on the country’s southern periphery, China may be keen to tell the world it is no longer the world’s factory, yet, to make sure the mighty container ships are not disrupted from accessing the Hong Kong-Macao Bay Area, engineers designed and built the world’s longest undersea tunnel, that is some 6km in length.
Back to today’s anniversary. In addition to the Huaihai Lu affair, many more such overhead road crossings were to open over the following years. In the mid 1990s, there were 24 pedestrian overpasses in downtown Nanjing.
In fact, bridges may turn out to perhaps be the hitherto unsung calling card of the city. Most people are unaware that our trusty high-speed train line from Nanjing to Shanghai is also home to the world’s longest bridge. At 167 km, the Danyang to Kunshan section of the line, being elevated in its entirety, technically qualifies as a bridge.
