Chinese Stone Arch Bridge Text

The Chinese Stone Arch Bridge

Author: Mao Yisheng

Original text

The stone arch bridge has a curved hole, just like a rainbow. Ancient myths say that the rainbow after rain is "the bridge between heaven and earth", and through the rainbow you can go to heaven. Our poets love to compare arch bridges to rainbows, saying that arch bridges are "lying rainbow" and "flying rainbow", and describing water arch bridges as "long rainbow lying wave".

The stone arch bridge appeared earlier in the history of the world's bridges. This bridge is not only beautiful form, and the structure is strong, can be decades of hundreds of years or even thousands of years of male across the river, in the transportation play a role.

China's stone arch bridge has a long history. The "Traveler's Bridge" mentioned in the "Notes on the Water Classic" was built around 282 AD, and is probably the earliest stone arch bridge on record. There are stone arch bridges almost everywhere in China. These bridges are of different sizes and forms, and many of them are amazing masterpieces. The most famous of these are the Zhaozhou Bridge in Zhao County, Hebei Province, and the Lugou Bridge in Beijing's Fengtai District.

The Zhaozhou Bridge, which spans the Xiao River, is a world-famous ancient stone arch bridge, and the oldest stone bridge that has been in use since its creation. The bridge was built around 605 A.D. and has remained in its original majestic form for more than 1,300 years now. By the time of liberation, the bridge had become somewhat dilapidated, and under the leadership of the People's Government, after a thorough refurbishment, this ancient bridge was rejuvenated.

Zhaozhou Bridge is very magnificent, the total length of 50.82 meters, 9.6 meters wide at both ends, the central part is slightly narrower, 9 meters wide. The design of the bridge is completely scientific, and the construction technology is even more ingenious. Zhang Jiazhen of the Tang Dynasty said it was "made strange, people do not know why". The bridge is characterized by: the bridge only a large arch, up to 374 meters long, at that time can be regarded as the world's longest stone arch. The bridge hole is not an ordinary semicircle, but like a bow, and thus the road above the big arch has no steep slope, making it easy for cars and horses to go up and down.

On each shoulder of the big arch, there are two small arches. This creative design not only saves stone and reduces the weight of the bridge, but also increases the overflow capacity of the bridge hole and reduces the impact of floodwater on the bridge when the river is surging. At the same time, the arch on the arch, the bridge is also more beautiful. The big arch is put together by 28 arch rings, just like so many bows of the same shape are put together to make a curved bridge hole. Each arch ring supports the weight above it independently, so that if one breaks down, the others will not be affected.

The structure of the whole bridge is well-proportioned, and the surrounding scenery with a very harmonious; the stone railing on the bridge slate is also carved in a simple and beautiful. Zhang river gull of the Tang Dynasty said, looking at the bridge from afar is like "the first moon out of the clouds, long rainbow drinking stream". The high technical level and immortal artistic value of Zhaozhou Bridge fully demonstrates the wisdom and strength of our laboring people. The main designer of the bridge, Li Chun, was an outstanding craftsman, and his name is engraved in the inscription at the head of the bridge.

The Lugou Bridge over the Yongding River was built between 1189 and 1192 AD. The bridge is 265 meters long and consists of 11 semicircular stone arches, each varying in length from 16 to 21.6 meters. The width of the bridge is about 8 meters and the road is flat and almost parallel to the river. Between every two stone arches there are stone piers, which link the 11 stone arches into a whole. Since the arches are connected, this kind of bridge is called a joint-arch stone bridge.

When the Yongding River floods, it is very fierce, and the embankments on both sides of the river used to be washed away, but this bridge has never been in trouble, which shows that it is sturdy. The bridge is paved with stone slabs, and there are stone columns on both sides. Each pillar is carved with lions in different postures. These stone lions, some mothers and children embrace, some head and ears, some like listening to the sound of water, some like watching pedestrians, a thousand shapes, but also very similar.

As early as in the 13th century, Lugou Bridge is world-famous. At that time there was an Italian Marco Polo came to China, his travel notes, very high praise for the bridge, said it "is unique in the world", and especially appreciate the bridge columns carved lions, said they "*** with the composition of a beautiful spectacle". In Japan, this bridge has also been praised. It is located in the main road into the capital, and beautiful architecture, "Lugou Xiaoyue" has long been one of the scenic beauty of Beijing.

Lugou Bridge is also memorable in the history of our people's war of resistance against imperialist aggression, which began on July 7, 1937, when Chinese soldiers fought against Japanese imperialist aggression.

Why China's stone arch bridge will have such a glorious achievement? First of all, lies in the diligence and wisdom of our working people. Their craftsmanship of making stone is extremely exquisite, can cut the stone into a whole large stone monument, and can carve the stone into various images. There are many creations in construction technology, lifting and hoisting more unexpected ways. Such as Zhangzhou, Fujian, Jiangdong Bridge, built eight hundred years ago, some of the stone beams a piece of two hundred tons of weight, exactly how to install up to now is not fully known.

Secondly, the design and construction of China's stone arch bridge has a fine tradition, built bridges, material saving, clever structure, high strength. Secondly, our country is rich in all kinds of stone materials used in construction, easy to local materials, which also provides favorable conditions for the construction of stone bridges.

Over the past two thousand years, China has built countless stone arch bridges. After the liberation of the country, the large-scale construction of a variety of types of highway bridges and railroad bridges, which has a lot of stone arch bridges. 1961, Yunnan Province built a world's longest one-arched stone bridge, called the "Changhong Bridge", the stone arch up to 112.5 meters long.

On the basis of the traditional stone arch bridge, we also built a large number of reinforced concrete arch bridge, of which "double-curved arch bridge" is a new creation of our working people, is the only one in the world. In recent years, the country built a total length of more than 200,000 meters of this arch bridge, the largest hole, up to 150 meters long. The leaping development of China's bridge industry shows the incomparable superiority of our socialist system.

A, "Chinese stone arch bridge" appreciation:

1. Long history (the earliest recorded stone arch bridge "traveler's bridge" was built in about 282 AD).

2. Almost everywhere (that is, more and widely distributed).

3. They are of various sizes and forms, and many of them are astonishing masterpieces - diverse and outstanding ...?

4. Not only beautiful form, but also a strong structure, a long history of the bridge into a curved, full of life.

Stone arch bridge is one of the three basic types of traditional bridges in China. Stone arch bridge this system, and is diverse. This article is written by the two bridges, is the millions of stone arch bridge in the outstanding representative work. Thousands of years, the stone arch bridge all over the motherland mountains and rivers, with the increasingly developed economy and culture and development, they are a part of China's ancient splendid culture, in the world has won honor for the motherland.

To date, a large number of well-preserved ancient bridges, can be a historical testimony to the superb technology of the bridge craftsmen of all generations, showing the wisdom and strength of our working people. An ancient bridge, can withstand the test of natural disasters and scourges of war, after thousands of years and not bad, not only as a monument to be preserved, but also to maintain its inherent function unchanged, can be called a miracle. Of course, should also be attributed to successive generations of hard repair, this kind of repair activities and often from the civil love of the bridge to protect the bridge, this social trend in the history of China's bridges, there are a lot of stories, is worth celebrating.

Secondly, the stone arch bridge in the history of China's bridge development, appeared later, but once it appeared, it has been the rapid development, that is, in the 1880's modern railroads and highways bridge engineering technology imported into China, it is still maintaining its vitality, combined with the modern engineering theories and new building materials, has achieved greater development.

This is the ancient and modern Chinese and foreign bridges as well as any building the consistent pursuit of the goal, in the early sixth century, China's skilled craftsmen and craftsmen to give full play to their intellects, bold innovation achieved by the glorious achievements of the country is worth being proud of.?

Once again, bridges across the water, the beauty of the mood, carved and decorated, in a thousand shapes and sizes, is also a national tradition that reflects our aesthetic. Architecture regardless of size, craftsmanship must strive for excellence, as a picture, not allowed to have a defeat. Since the prevalence of grottoes, ancient stone workers, have a set of hard skills, have a certain level of aesthetics, Zhaozhou Bridge railing, Lugou Bridge stone lions, are known for their artistic treasures, which is also a valuable tradition in the art of Chinese stone arch bridge, for the modern decoration of the stone arch bridge is also still there is a profound influence.

China's stone arch bridges, which had certain achievements in ancient times, still have prospects for development today, and what was useful in the past still plays a role today, so it is a precious heritage that shows the hardworking and courageous and excellent talents of our laboring people. We are bound to achieve more in the modern bridge business.?

Arched bridges for one of the basic system of bridges, building a long history of beautiful appearance, ancient and modern Chinese and foreign famous bridges all over the world, in bridge construction occupies an important position. It is suitable for large, medium and small span highway or railroad bridge, especially suitable for crossing the canyon, but also because of its beautiful shape, also commonly used in cities, scenic areas of the bridge building.

Since the mid-19th century, with the emergence of steel and concrete construction materials, stone arch bridge has been gradually replaced by steel arch and reinforced concrete arch bridge. Arch bridge structure to lightweight structure development, and gradually break the traditional top-bearing stone arch bridge type, to create a new type of arch bridge.

The arch ring of the arch bridge has developed into a separated rib arch, and the deck has developed into a new type of plate girder structure, which is supported by columns on top of the arch ribs (top-bearing), or suspended under the arch ribs with a boom (bottom-bearing). When restricted by terrain or by the height of the bridge building, it can also be made into a center-bearing arch bridge. The arch bridge can be a single span, can also be made into a multi-span.

Three, the author:

Mao Yisheng (January 9, 1896 - November 12, 1989), the word Tangchen, Zhenjiang, Jiangsu Province, China's civil engineers, bridge experts, engineering educators, academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, members of the American Academy of Engineering, academicians of the Academia Sinica, members of the Jiu San Society.

Mao Yisheng served as president of the National Hohai University of Technology, president of the Tangshan School of the Ministry of Transportation (today's Southwest Jiaotong University), dean of the Peking University College of Technology, director of the Jiangsu Provincial Department of Water Resources, director of the Qiantang River Bridge Engineering Agency, acting president and dean of the Tangshan College of Technology of the University of Transportation, general manager of the China Bridge Company, president of the Peking University, president of the China/North China University of Transportation (which at the time included today's Southwest Jiaotong University and today's Beijing Jiaotong University), president of the Railway Science Institute He was also the president of Beiyang University, the president of China/North China Jiaotong University (then including present-day Southwest Jiaotong University and present-day Beijing Jiaotong University), and the president of the Railway Research Institute.

In 1955, he was elected as an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (member of the Academy). Mao Yisheng presided over the work of the Chinese Academy of Railway Sciences for many years, and made outstanding contributions to the progress of railway science and technology. He presided over the construction of the Qiantang River Bridge, the first modernized large-scale bridge designed and built by the Chinese themselves, which became a milestone in the history of China's railroad bridges; after the founding of New China, he took part in the design of the Wuhan Yangtze River Bridge, which was designed by Mao Yisheng. After the founding of New China, he participated in the design of Wuhan Yangtze River Bridge. On November 12, 1989, he died in Beijing at the age of 93 years.