Chapter 11 Section 5 The cable bridge originated in China

Cable bridges, namely suspension bridges and suspension bridges, were first created in my country.Various types of cable bridges can often be seen in the upper reaches of the Nujiang River, the Lancang River, and the Jinsha River in Yunguichuan, my country, and in the Yalong River, Dadu River, Wujiang River, Beipan River, Qinling Mountains, and Taiwan Mountains.Among them, Panjiang Bridge in Guizhou, Luding Bridge in Sichuan, and Jihong Bridge in Yunnan are all famous in the history of international bridges.In these places, the valleys are deep and the water is urgent, and it is impossible to build piers and bridges. The ancient working people invented the method of using bamboo, rattan and iron ropes as cables for bridges.Foreign scholars believe that "China began to build cable bridges about 3,000 years ago."At present, the earliest cable bridge has been verified to be the Ruo [zuo yesterday] bridge in Yizhou, Sichuan (now Chengdu). It was built in the Qin Dynasty when Li Bing was appointed Shu Shoushi (251 BC), and it has been more than 2,200 years ago.Yang Xuan (xuanxuan) recorded in "Luoyang Jialanji" that the iron chain bridge in Xinjiang during the Northern Wei Dynasty in 519 AD was the earliest iron chain bridge in the world.Such bridges did not appear in the West until the 16th century.

Ancient books refer to cable bridges as Ji bridge, Ruo bridge and rope bridge, and they are divided into two categories: single cable and multiple cables.The single cable bridge is also called the cable bridge.According to ancient books, the pillars on both sides of the cable bridge are spanned by bamboo ropes, with wooden tubes on the cables and ropes under the tubes.When people cross the river, they tie ropes to their bodies, hold on to the wooden tubes, and zip across.The multi-cable bridge has several cables juxtaposed, and the upper deck is covered with wooden boards. Some of them are suspended on both sides as railings, and some are not equipped with railings.The cable bridge hangs in the air and sways with the wind. When you first cross the cable bridge, you can't help but feel frightened.Zhimeng of the Tang Dynasty wrote in Praise of Ruoqiao: "The ice cliff is bright, with more than a hundred thousand feet. The flying rope is used as a bridge to pass by. You can't see the bottom, and you can't see the sky. The cold air is brutal, and the shadows tremble." Lu You, a famous poet in the Song Dynasty, once used the poem "Crossing the cable to reach a thousand feet, and the ladder mountain is in the air" to describe the majestic appearance of the cable bridge.Among the many ancient cable bridges, Zhupu Bridge in Dujiangyan, Sichuan is an outstanding representative of bamboo cable bridges, while Luding Bridge over the Dadu River is the best among iron cable bridges.The Zhupu Bridge is 320 meters long, with 10 bamboo cables as thick as bowls on the bridge deck, eight wooden bent frames and one stone pier underneath, and nine bridge holes with the largest span of 61 meters.As for the year when the bridge was built, it is not yet known.Historical records tell us that Luding Bridge was built in the 45th year of Kangxi in the Qing Dynasty (AD 1706). It is 103.7 meters long and 3 meters wide. It is composed of 13 large iron chains. It was the only large iron cable bridge in the world at that time. For more than 200 years, it has contributed to the convenience of transportation in the Southwest. "The water on the sands is warm against the clouds and the cliffs, and the iron cables across the Dadu Bridge are cold", Comrade Mao Zedong's famous poem added luster to this iron cable bridge, which made great contributions to the Long March of the Red Army of Workers and Peasants.

The largest iron chain bridge in ancient times was a large iron chain bridge across the Qutang Gorge of the Yangtze River built in the late Yuan Dynasty.According to "Fengjie County Chronicles" (19th year of Guangxu edition) and other historical records: In 1369 AD, Zhu Yuanzhang sent generals Tang He, Liao Yongzhong, and Kang Maocai to attack Qutang Pass, and the emperor of the Yuan Dynasty sent Mo Renshou to lead the army to build a chain bridge on the Qutang Gorge River. Spread wooden boards on the surface, put cannons on it, and strictly guard the pass.Qutang Pass was originally a place where "one man guards the pass, and ten thousand men cannot open it". Tang He and others had no choice but to look at the bridge and sigh, fearing the guns and retreating.Today, although there is nothing left of the chain bridge, there is still a stone tablet at the mouth of Daxi that reads "Where Kang Maocai entered the army".At that time, the "flying bridge" bridge was 277.5 feet long (925 meters), and it was divided into three layers.We can imagine how majestic this ancient Yangtze River iron chain bridge is!

In addition to the above three basic types of bridges, there is also a floating bridge.In the history of bridges, pontoon bridges belong to the transitional form from ships to formal bridges, and most of them are temporary structures that will be demolished as time goes by.The Yangtze River Floating Bridge built in the early Song Dynasty can be regarded as the largest floating bridge in ancient my country.In the seventh year of Kaiyuan in the early Song Dynasty (AD 974), in order to unify the whole country, Song Taizu Zhao Kuangyin sent generals Cao Bin, Pan Mei and others to attack the Southern Tang Dynasty. Thousands of large ships were used to connect the two banks to form a large pontoon bridge.This pontoon bridge is much longer than the 925-meter Qutang Gorge iron cable fly bridge introduced earlier, and it was built 395 years earlier than it.

Through the above analysis, we can see that the history of bridges in ancient my country has extremely rich content.Generally speaking, the ancient bridges in our country have girder bridges first, then cable bridges, and arch bridges appear last.But no matter which form of bridge, without exception, it has experienced the process of evolving from low-level to relatively high-level, from simple to gradually perfect.