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The Longteng Bridge (), officially known as the Yutengping Bridge (), is a former
The bridge was built in 1906 during Japanese rule, and was named . It was designed by the American civil engineers Theodore Cooper and C.C. Schneider for the colonial government. Both the bridge and nearby village (modern-day ''Longteng'') were named after a local plant ''
The 1938 bridge stands at 50 meters tall and 200 meters long, making it the highest iron bridge in Taiwan.
The ruined 1907 bridge piers are covered with white
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 ...
in Longteng Village, Sanyi Township, Miaoli County, Taiwan
Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...
.
History
The bridge was built in 1906 during Japanese rule, and was named . It was designed by the American civil engineers Theodore Cooper and C.C. Schneider for the colonial government. Both the bridge and nearby village (modern-day ''Longteng'') were named after a local plant ''Millettia pachycarpa
''Millettia pachycarpa'' (synonym ''M. taiwaniana'' Hayata) is a perennial climbing shrub belonging to the genus ''Millettia''. It is one of the most well known among ~150 species of ''Millettia'', as it is widely used in traditional practices, ...
'' () believed to be poisonous to fish; legends believed that a malevolent carp in a nearby lake was responsible for misfortune, and residents planted the shrub to counter the carp. The original design consists of a central steel truss
A truss is an assembly of ''members'' such as beams, connected by ''nodes'', that creates a rigid structure.
In engineering, a truss is a structure that "consists of two-force members only, where the members are organized so that the assembl ...
flanked by multiple brick masonry arch approaches.
The April 1935 Shinchiku-Taichū earthquake
The 1935 Shinchiku-Taichū earthquake occurred with a Richter magnitude of 7.1 (7.0 Mw) in April 1935 with its epicenter in Taichung, Taiwan (then Shinchiku Prefecture). It was the deadliest earthquake in Taiwan's recorded history, claim ...
and subsequent aftershocks in July damaged the bridge beyond repair. Several masonry arches were cracked and the north and south ends of the truss became misaligned. A new iron bridge was built in 1938, 80 meters to the west of Longteng Bridge, and the central truss was dismantled once the new bridge opened. ''Longteng'' of the bridge's common name is from the name of Longteng Village and gained use after the Japanese handover of Taiwan.
The 1999 921 earthquake
The Chi-Chi earthquake (later also known as the Jiji earthquake) (), also known as the great earthquake of September 21 (), was a 7.3 ML or 7.7 Mw earthquake which occurred in Jiji (Chi-Chi), Nantou County, Taiwan on Tuesday, 21 Se ...
caused one of the remaining piers to collapse and as a result, the county government decided to rededicate the bridge's remains as a monument to the two deadliest earthquakes in Taiwan's history. It was placed on the list of Taiwan's Cultural Heritage Assets (Historical Site #KA09602001112) on 25 November 2003.
Architecture
The 1938 bridge stands at 50 meters tall and 200 meters long, making it the highest iron bridge in Taiwan.
The ruined 1907 bridge piers are covered with white tung tree
''Vernicia fordii'', usually known as the tung tree (, ''tóng'') is a species of flowering plant in the spurge family native to southern China, Myanmar, and northern Vietnam. It is a small to medium-sized deciduous tree growing to 20 m tall, wit ...
flowers () every year from April to May, marking the height of its popularity as a tourist and hiking destination.
Transportation
The bridge is accessible by taxi south from Sanyi Station ofTaiwan Railways Administration
Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA) is a railway operator in Taiwan. It is an agency of the Ministry of Transportation and Communications, responsible for managing, maintaining, and running conventional passenger and freight railway services ...
.
Between 2010 and 2011, the station was accessible by Yutengping Station, which has since been removed.
See also
*Transportation in Taiwan
Transport (in British English), or transportation (in American English), is the intentional movement of humans, animals, and goods from one location to another. Modes of transport include air, land (rail and road), water, cable, pipeline, ...
References
External links
* * * {{cite web , url=http://www.tonyhuang39.com/tony0528/tony0528.html , title=Tony的自然人文旅記（0528）, trans-title=Tony's Natural and Cultural Tour Memories (0528) , date=22 May 2007 , author=Huang, Tony , website=Tony Huang , accessdate=21 March 2015 , language=zh Bridges to nowhere 1907 establishments in Taiwan Bridges completed in 1907 Buildings and structures in Miaoli County