Ancient Bridge
China is a great country with a written history of about 5000 years. She has a vast territory, topographically higher in the northwest and lower in the southeast. Networked with rivers, she has the best-known valleys of the Yangtze River, the Yellow River and the Pearl River, which are the cradle of the Chinese nation and her brilliant culture. Throughout history, the Chinese nation has erected thousands of bridges, which form an important part of her culture.
Ancient Chinese bridges are universally acknowledged and have enjoyed high prestige in the bridge history of both the East and the West.
Ancient Chinese bridges can be classified under four categories: the beam, arch, cable suspension and floating bridges.
Arch Bridge
Beam Bridge
Cable Bridge
Floating Bridge
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| Arch Bridges
There are different views on the origin of arches. Some believe the first arch was a natural formation over the caverns, others claim that it was brought into being by the piling of the collapsed stones, and still others hold that it was evolved from the "false arch" which was formed by the openings in the walls.
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| Beam Bridges
The earliest reference to the beam bridge in Chinese history is the Ju Bridge dating from the Shang Dynasty (16th-11th century B.C.). King Wu of the Zhou Dynasty launched a campaign against King Zhou (Zhou Wang), and having captured Zhaoge -capital of the Shang Dynasty (now northeast to Quzhou County, Hebei Province), at the Ju Bridge, he ordered a hoard of millet distributed to the relief of the poor. From the Zhou Dynasty through to the Qin and Han Dynasties, bridges with timber beams and stone piers were predominant.
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| Cable Suspension Bridges
Cable suspension bridges vary in kind according to the material of which the cables are made: rattan, bamboo, leather and iron chain. According to historical records, 285 B.C. saw the zha bridge (bamboo cable bridge). Li Bin of the Qin State, who guarded Shu (256 -251 B.C.), superintended the establishment of 7 bridges in Gaizhou (now Chengdu, Sichuan Province), one of which was built of bamboo cables.
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