Hiền Lương Bridge ( vi, Cầu Hiền Lương) is a

bridge A bridge is a structure built to span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or rail) without blocking the way underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, which is usually somethi ...

over

Bến Hải River The Bến Hải River ( vi, Sông Bến Hải) is a river in central Vietnam which became an important landmark in the partition of the country into a northern and a southern zone along the 17th parallel by the Geneva Accords of 1954 then end ...

, Vĩnh Linh District, Quảng Trị Province, North Central Coast, Việt Nam. This bridge is located in 17th Parallel and in

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...

, it was bisected between

South Vietnam South Vietnam, officially the Republic of Vietnam ( vi, Việt Nam Cộng hòa), was a state in Southeast Asia that existed from 1955 to 1975, the period when the southern portion of Vietnam was a member of the Western Bloc during part of th ...

and North Vietnam from 1954 to 1976. American bombs destroyed the first Hien Luong Bridge in 1967 and again destroyed it in 1970.

History

Hien Luong bridge, being located at the military border of the war, witnessed symbolic and propaganda conflicts between the two sides of the war. Both the Saigon regime and the Democratic Republic of Vietnam deployed huge speakers with high power to broadcast their message as far as possible. Moreover, whenever the Saigon regime repaint their part of the bridge with a new color, the Democratic Republic of Vietnam also repainted their part with the very same color, to signify DRV's will to unify of Vietnam nation. Both sides also built massive flag poles in a race of size and height, resulted at a victory of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam with a 38.6 metre height pole. Unable to win the battle of size, the Saigon regime attempted to destroy the opponent flag by intense airstrikes and naval bombardment. Later during the 1965-68 American bombardment against Democratic Republic of Vietnam, the DRV flags was also targeted many times by American airstrikes. The 1967 bombing destroyed both the bridge and the flag pole. DRV responded by rebuilt a new temporary flag pole every time the old one was destroyed. Sewing machines were send to the frontline to reduce the required manufacture time. Local people also assisted the sewing, with two women named Trần Thị Viễn and Ngô Thị Diễm was awarded the title of Hero for their significant contribution to the task. In 1973, an iron girder bridge was built and reopened following reunification in 1975. The current bridge was built in 1999.

References

Buildings and structures in Quảng Trị province Bridges in Vietnam {{QuangTri-geo-stub