Nanjing Attractions The Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge
Nanjing Attractions,Nanjing Popular Tourists Attractions Guide
The Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge, the first China-designed Bridge on its longest river, will undergo the first major overhaul since it was built more than three decades ago.
Construction of the Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge began on January 1960 and finished on December 1968. It was constructed from beginning to end by the Chinese.
Engineering of the abutment piers was extremely difficult because the Yangtze River is wide here and the rapids reach three meters per second.
It is the first double-decker and double-track highway and railway bridge designed and constructed by the Chinese. It is 6,772 meters (22,212 feet) long and has a span of 160 meters (525 feet). The bridge has nine piers altogether. The tallest one is 85 meters (about 279 feet) with the base area of about 400 square meters (478 square yards), larger than a basketball court. There are 200 cast iron relief’s inlayed on the banisters on the two sides of the highway as well as 150 pairs of street lamps along the sidewalks on the main section of the bridge. Two bridge towers are located respectively at each end of the bridge each with a height of 70 meters (about 230 feet). They contain elevators which enable personal access to both decks of the bridge as well as the watchtowers. Under the southern bridge tower there is a beautiful park. The bridge has been one of the longest in China and a landmark building in Naming, capital of Jiangsu Province for a long time. It was hailed an engineering miracle upon its completion.
