Tongji Bridge (Jinhua)
Tongji Bridge 通濟橋 | |
---|---|
Yuan Dynasty | |
Construction end | 1334 (covered bridge) 1809 (changed to open bridge) |
Opened | 1334 1809 |
Location | |
The Tongji Bridge (
."Tongji Bridge" ("Tong" means transport/transportantion, "Ji" means aid or cross a river) is a very common name for bridges in ancient China.
The bridge has a nickname "The Big Bridge of Jinhua" (traditional Chinese: 金華大橋, simplified Chinese: 金华大桥, pinyin: Jīn Huá Dà Qiáo), because of its large size. And it is one of the largest ancient arch bridges in Zhejiang.[1]
The bridge goes across the Wu River (婺江), and has a total history of more than 600 years.[1]
History
The bridge has a long history. At beginning it was a
during rain seasons.In the fourth year of
The first phase of construction lasted for five and a half years until the death of Ji'an. Eleven stone piers of the bridge were finished but the construction of its upper structure was stopped due to the death of Ji'an.[2]
After many years, another monk, from the same temple, named Yunlong (traditional Chinese: 雲龍, simplified Chinese: 云龙, pinyin: Yúnlóng) who was the head of the temple at that time, came and continued Ji'an's job.[2]
In the second year of the
In the 14th year of the
Many drastic and historic battles happened on the bridge, including the battles of the Taiping Rebellion, the Second Sino-Japanese War, and the Chinese Civil War. Luckily, the main structure of the bridge remained almost intact during and after wars.[2]
In the 1950s, some repairs and enhancements of its structure took place, but the main parts of the bridge did not change.[3]
Current conditions
The bridge is in the key way to Lanxi and Quzhou − two important cities and industrial bases in Western Zhejiang. It goes across the Wu River, and links the North and South districts of urban Jinhua. The road on the bridge is named Bayi South Road (simplified/traditional Chinese: 八一南路, pinyin: Bā Yī Nán Lù, "nan" means south/southern), which is a traffic artery.[3]
The bridge was further elongated and broadened in October 1994; the project was finished in December 1995. The current width of the bridge is 24.5 meters and the total length is about 380 meters.[3]
References
- ^ a b c d e f g "通济桥 (Tongji Bridge)" (in Chinese). 金华旅游景点-携程旅行网 (Tourism sites in Jinhua, Traveling Accompany). Archived from the original on 2010-03-05. Retrieved January 1, 2010.
- ^ a b c d e f 张昌贤 (ZHANG Changxian), 王煊城 (WANG Xuancheng) (January 1985). "通济桥 (Tongji Bridge)" (aspx) (in Chinese). 金华市地名办公室 (Jinhua Office of Place Names). Retrieved January 1, 2010.
- ^ a b c d "金华通济桥的变迁 (The history of Jinhua Tongji Bridge)" (in Chinese). 浙中新报 (Zhezhong Newspaper). 2009-09-15. Archived from the original on July 7, 2011. Retrieved January 1, 2010.
External links
- The map of the Tongji Bridge (in Chinese)