Architecture of The Song Dynasty - Bridges

Bridges

Bridges over waterways had been known in China since the ancient Zhou Dynasty. During the Song Dynasty, large trestle bridges were constructed, such as that built by Zhang Zhongyan in 1158. There were also large bridges made entirely of stone, like the Ba Zi Bridge of Shaoxing, built in 1256 and still standing today. Bridges with pavilions crowning their central spans were often featured in such paintings as the landscapes of Xia Gui (1195–1224). Long, covered corridor bridges, like the 12th-century Rainbow Bridge in Wuyuan, Jiangxi province, which has wide stone-based piers and a wooden superstructure, were also built.

While serving as an administrator for Hangzhou, the poet Su Shi (1037–1101) had a large pedestrian causeway built across the West Lake, which still bears his name: Sudi (蘇堤). In 1221, the Taoist traveler Qiu Changchun visited Genghis Khan in Samarkand, describing various Chinese bridges encountered on the way there through the Tian Shan Mountains, east of Yining. The historian Joseph Needham quotes him as saying:

"no less than 48 timber bridges of such width that two carts can drive over them side by side". It had been built by Chang Jung and the other engineers of the Chagatai some years before. The wooden trestles of Chinese bridges from the −3rd century onwards were no doubt similar to those supposed to have been employed in Julius Caesar's bridge of −55 across the Rhine, or drawn by Leonardo, or found in use in Africa. But where in +13th century Europe could a two-lane highway like Chang Jung's have been found?

In Fujian Province, enormous beam bridges were built during the Song Dynasty. Some of these were as long as 1,220 m (4,000 ft), with individual spans of up to 22 m (72 ft) in length; their construction necessitated moving massive stones of 203 t (203,000 kg). No names of the engineers were recorded or appear in the inscriptions on the bridges, which give only the names of local officials who sponsored them and oversaw their construction and repair. However, there might have been an engineering school in Fujian, headed by a prominent engineer known as Cai Xiang (1012–1067), who had risen to the position of governmental prefect in Fujian. Between 1053 and 1059, he planned and supervised the construction of the large Wanan Bridge (once called the Luoyang Bridge) near Quanzhou (on the border of the present-day Luojiang District and Huai'an County. This bridge, a stone structure similar to a number of other bridges found in Fujian, still stands, and features ship-like piers bound to their bases using mucilage from oysters as an adhesive. It is 731 m (2,398 ft) in length, 5 m (16 ft) in width, and 7 m (23 ft) in height. Another famous bridge near Quanzhou, the Anping Bridge, was constructed between 1138 and 1151.

Other examples of Song Dynasty bridges include Guyue Bridge, a stone arch bridge in Yiwu, Zhejiang Province. The bridge was built in 1213, the sixth year of the Jiading Era in the Southern Song Dynasty. Song-era pontoon bridges include the Dongjin Bridge, 400 m (1⁄₄ mi) long, which may still be seen today.