It’s the 65th anniversary of the opening of the Wuhan Yangtze River Bridge. How much do you know about bridges?

On October 15, Wuhan Yangtze River Bridge turned 65 years old

Designed to last 100 years, it is now in its prime.

"Body" is still strong

The construction of the first bridge over the Yangtze River

Build bridges across rivers, lakes, seas and gullies in the future

Accumulated successful experience

It is a milestone in the history of bridge construction in China.

So what are the characteristics of the first Yangtze River Bridge?

Why are there so many different shapes and sizes of bridges in the world?

What does the first Yangtze River Bridge mean?

The Wuhan Yangtze River Bridge starts from the south slope of Guishan Mountain in Hanyang in the northwest and ends at the top of Sheshan Mountain in Wuchang in the southeast. It is 1,670.4 meters long and consists of the main bridge, approach bridge and the abutments at their connection (boundary). The double-track railway is on the lower level and the 18-meter-wide, 6-lane highway is on the upper level, which can meet the navigation requirements of large ships going up.

The construction of the bridge pier foundation adopts the "pipe column drilling method", which is to insert chopstick-like concrete pipe columns into the riverbed, and then build bridge piers on the pipe columns. This method has created a new technology in China's bridge construction history.

Wuhan Yangtze River Bridge

So why build this bridge? The Yangtze River is a golden waterway connecting my country's east and west, but it is also a natural barrier that separates north-south traffic. All goods going north and south must be transported by ship, and the railway to and from Wuhan, which is located in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River and is known as the thoroughfare of nine provinces, was also interrupted.

Wuhan Yangtze River Bridge connects the Beijing-Hankou Railway and the Guangdong-Hankou Railway, making the Beijing-Guangzhou Railway a major artery of north-south transportation and providing economical and convenient conditions. Five years after the bridge was opened to traffic, more than 8 million tons of goods were transported by rail, shortening transportation time by about 21 million hours, and the freight costs saved have exceeded the cost of the bridge.

How many types of bridges are there in the world?

A bridge is a load-bearing structure that crosses obstacles. It is composed of several components. From the perspective of the components, there are only three types of stress: tension, compression and bending. The tensile capacity of bridge components is the strongest, followed by compression, and bending is the weakest. These three stress modes of components are combined into four basic bridge types: suspension bridge, cable-stayed bridge, arch bridge and beam bridge.

A suspension bridge is a bridge that uses a main cable suspended from a cable tower and anchored on both sides as the main load-bearing structure. The main cable is used for tension and has the largest load-bearing capacity. Among all bridge types, the suspension bridge has the largest spanning capacity.

Wufengshan Yangtze River Bridge

A cable-stayed bridge is a bridge that uses high-strength cables to pull the main beam diagonally above the main tower. In a cable-stayed bridge, the cables are the tensioned part, and their bearing capacity is relatively strong. The main beam is mainly compressed. This combination of tension and compression determines that the span capacity of a cable-stayed bridge is smaller than that of a suspension bridge, but stronger than that of an arch bridge or a beam bridge. It can reduce the bending moment in the beam, lower the building height, reduce the weight of the structure, and save materials.

Yangpu Bridge

An arch bridge is a bridge that converts vertical loads into compression on the arch axis through an arc-shaped structure. Its spanning capacity is smaller than that of a cable-stayed bridge, and even smaller than that of a suspension bridge. The working people of ancient China built many stone arch bridges, including the Zhaozhou Bridge in Hebei, the Baodai Bridge in Suzhou, the Lugou Bridge in Beijing, and the Yudai Bridge in the Summer Palace.

Marco Polo Bridge

Beam bridges are the earliest type of bridges in my country. At first, they used tree trunks and stone slabs as load-bearing structures. They are very simple in structure and easy to construct. When the spanning capacity is not required to be high, beam bridges are generally chosen. Since the bending capacity of the components is the weakest, the spanning capacity of beam bridges is also the smallest.

New Pengbu Bridge

How do you measure the difficulty of a bridge?

The larger the span of a bridge, the greater the technical difficulty, so people often use the span of a bridge to roughly measure the technical level of a bridge's construction.

Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge

So far, the longest suspension bridge is the Çanakkale Bridge in Turkey, which is 2,023 meters long. The longest cable-stayed bridge is 1,176 meters long, which is the Changtai Yangtze River Bridge in China. The longest arch bridge is 600 meters long, which is the Tian'e Longtan Bridge in Guangxi, China. The longest beam bridge is 300 meters long, which is the Shibanpo Yangtze River Bridge in Chongqing.

Changtai Yangtze River Bridge

That’s right, among the four types of bridges, three of the longest ones are in China.

Today, China's bridge construction is gradually moving from Made in China to Created in China. China's bridges have reached world-class standards in terms of spanning capacity, bridge-building technology, bridge-building materials, bridge-building equipment and other aspects, making China's contribution to the development of world bridge technology.

References: Jiefang Daily, Hubei News, Yangtze River Daily, China Newsweek, Tencent News

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Editor/Gulu