40-ton Luding Bridge, 13 iron chains 12 164 iron rings, erected in ancient times?

Luding Bridge is one of the unique traditional wooden structures in China. It was built from the forty-fourth year of Kangxi to the forty-fifth year of Kangxi. It took a year to build the best building in the world. And written by Emperor Kangxi? Luding Bridge? . So what's unique about this bridge? The uniqueness lies in the historical significance and minimalist style of Luding Bridge. The historical significance is that Luding Bridge witnessed the feat of the Long March, which made the cold Luding Bridge come to life immediately and gave it cultural charm. We should talk about its style and shape.

Speaking of Luding Bridge, it is the key people who can't get around it. Total length 103m, width 3m, 13 iron chain, 12 134 iron ring, and the weight of the chain is 40 tons. This kind of engineering quantity is not easy in modern times, not to mention the Qing Dynasty more than 200 years ago. So how was Luding Bridge built?

The original intention of building Luding Bridge was because the Dadu River was flooded seriously at that time, which made it extremely inconvenient for pedestrians and businessmen to come and go. In the past, we could only cross the river by ferry, which was extremely dangerous and time-consuming, so accidents often occurred in this area. A more important reason is that during the reign of Kangxi, Tibet was already the territory of the Qing Dynasty. At that time, there were frequent exchanges of goods between the mainland and Tibetan areas and frequent troop movements. Suffering from the lack of formed bridges on the Dadu River, we can only solve these transportation problems by crossing the river. At that time, the governor of Sichuan proposed Kangxi to build a bridge, so the Dadu River came into being.

But it is not easy to build Luding Bridge. There were three main technical difficulties at that time. First, how did 12 134 make a chain with a thick bowl mouth and link it perfectly? Secondly, how did the103m-long 13 chain cross the river? The third is how to build such a large traction abutment, you know, a 40-ton chain. Look at the first one first. In fact, it is not difficult to connect the chains. The numbers are so complicated that it is impossible to do it without a certain economic ability. This is rare. To put it simply, Kangxi Dynasty was not short of money. Each iron ring has a craftsman who is specially responsible for building it, and it is engraved with its own seal, which is similar to the previous blue bricks of the city wall, ensuring the quality of the chain.

How to connect? First set up ropes on both banks, then put bamboo tubes on the ropes to ensure that the ropes are straight, and then put the iron rings in front of them one by one with ropes. Of course, in this process, the chain will definitely fall into the water because of its weight. When all the iron rings were connected together, they actually all fell into the river, but by this time the chain had been pulled to the other side of the river. Next, straighten the chain that fell into the water with a large turntable prepared in advance, so that the chain is fixed. As for the abutment, it is a wooden abutment with tenon-mortise structure unique to China, with excellent stability. So a bridge was built.