_____

Ancient and Modern Chinese Bridges

Ding Dajun
Prof.. Nanjing. Inst. of Technology. Nanjing. China

Summary

Ancient and modern bridges in China have much in common. A survey of old
and new bridges in China is presented, focusing on the following bridge types:
open spandrel arch, timber cantilever, timber strut arch cantilever, truss and iron
chain bridges. The paper underscores China's contributions to structural
engineering history.

Open Spandrel Arch Bridges

The Anji Bridge (Figs. 1, 2) in Hebei
Province was completed around the
year 599, during the Sui Dynasty. At-
tributed to the stonemason Li Chun. it
is the oldest surviving open spandrel
stone arch bridge in the world. In 1991,
the Anji Bridge was selected as the
12th International Historical Mile-
stone of Civil Engineering by the
American Society of Civil Engineers.
The width of the bridge deck is 10 m.
The arch stones are about I m thick
and 0.25—0.4 m wide so that the arched
rings vary in width from 9.0 to 9.6 m.
Fig. 1: The Anji Bridge
Thus. the external rings of the parallel
longitudinal arches incline slightly in-
64.4 rn
ward, helping to resist collapse.
6.57.
Between adjacent stones of each arch,
two X-shaped iron anchors (Fig. 3)
were placed, about a third of which
survived until the mid-1950s, when ma-
jor repair work was undertaken. It is
worth noting that prior to this repair 37.02m
work the Anji Bridge was still open to
truck traffic. However, some of the
Fig. 2: Anji Bridge elevation
arched rings had collapsed several

'
times during the long history of the
bridge. arch cover Stone
A/' ,t:O.3(cit springing)
To consolidate the transverse junction
--0.16m(at crown)
between arched rings. 5 iron bars with
capped heads were installed (Fig. 4, as
was an anchorage bar. A protective abutment
layer of facing stones was applied to arch
the upper surface of the main arch.
Additionall 6 L-shaped stones. each X-shaped
1.8 m long were fitted on each side of iron
the bridge. iron bar
The abutments were built up using 5
layers of stone with total thickness of - hooked stone
about 1.55 m and a width slightly 2-iron anchorage bar
greater than that of the arch. These
stones rest directly on layers of natural Fig. 3: Abutment construction and connec- Fig. 4: Spandrel wall
coarse sand and are much lighter tion scheme between arched rings

Structural Engineering International 1/94 Reports 41


Fig. 5: Wuclzao Bridge
than normally found in ancient stone
bridges.
Measurements taken during the repair
work showed the settlement differenc-
es of the abutments were slight. As-
suming a concentrated live load P = 98
kN results in a more than adequate
safety factor.
Some original stones protecting the
arches remain in use on side faces.
Others in the middle field of the arch
have been replaced by cover slabs
made of reinforced concrete with
Fig. 6: Lu River Bridge
Fig. 7: Second Qianiang River Bridge
42 Reports
toothed connections. Cement mortar
was also used, and additional layers of
waterproof materials were applied.
After 1949. many open spandrel stone
arch bridges were constructed in Chi-
na, some with main span lengths of
over 100 m, such as the Rainbow
Bridge (1961) in Yunnan Province and
the Jiuxigou Bridge (1971) in Sichuan
Province. These were the longest open
spandrel stone arch bridges in the
world when they were built. Currently,
the longest such span is found on the
bridge completed in 1991 across Wu-
chao River in Hunan Province (Fig. 5).
This is an arch bridge with two ribs and
a clear span of 120 m. Thus, the stone
arch open spandrel bridge has continu-
ally developed in China throughout
the course of history.
Cantilever and Continuous
Beam Bridges
Timber cantilever bridges are found
throughout China. Because timber
beams cannot span long distances, and
because of the difficulties in construct-
ing piers in deep valleys and riverbeds
in ancient times, the cantilever tech-
nique of bridge construction was de-
veloped.
According to literary sources, timber
cantilever bridges were constructed in
China as early as the 2nd century. A
5th century geographical survey. An-
notations to River Course Svstems',
records a timber cantilever beam
bridge with span of more than 13 m in
Gansu Province.
The Lu River Bridge (Fig. 6) in Hunan
Province was an 8-span continuous
cantilever bridge with stone piers and
timber beams. The distance centre-to-
centre between the piers was about 21
m. The span between cantilever ends
was about 10 m. This bridge was first
constructed in the Southern Song Dy-
nasty (1127—1279), and repaired and
reconstructed many times subsequent-
ly.
One later repair used 3 long timber
beams bound together and connected
with iron nails. More than 10 such lon-
gitudinal beams were placed at every
pier. each with a cantilever of about
1.3 m. On this base. a layer of longitu-
dinal beams followed by another of
transverse members were repeatedly
piled up to a total of more than 20
layers. Finally, the beams over the can-
tilevers were erected and inclined tim-
ber struts were added later to the stone
piers at the 4th layers of timber canti-
levers.
The longitudinal beams of this old re-
pair are an early example of iron-
timber composite beams. The layered
timber cantilevers produced a continu-
ous beam similar to modern steel or
reinforced concrete continuous bridge
beams. And the inclined timber struts
at the piers of the Lu River Bridge can
be considered analogous to modern V-
shaped piers. to some degree reducing
the spans.
Today, the longest continuous box
beam bridge in China is the pre-
stressed concrete Liuku Bridge over
the Nu River in Yunnan Province,
completed in 1990 with a maximum
span of 154 m. The Second Qiantang
River Bridge (Fig. 7) is a box beam
highway bridge constructed parallel to
a railway bridge and completed in
1992. Both bridges are continuous.
with l8spansof45+65+ 14 x80÷65
+ 45 = 1340 m without internal expan-
sion joints (Fig. 7).
Struclural Engineering International 1/94
Timber Strut Arch Bridges
A bridge over the Whitewater River in
Gansu Province was first mentioned in
literature as early as the Western un
Dynasty (266—316). At the end of the
19th century. the Yinping Bridge was
reconstructed as a timber cantilever
beam bridge (Fig. 8) and remains in
service today. The supports of this
bridge are constructed of 10 gradually
can tilevered layers of timber, the ends
of which are raised to achieve a large
angle of elevation. These cantilevers
not only reduce the span of the bridge,
but also assume the function of in-
clined struts.
Cantilevering techniques. with ever
larger angles of elevation formed by
the overhangs of the piled layers.
evolved into timber strut arch bridges
using individual inclined struts. A typi-
cal example is the Gannan Bridge
(Fig. 9)in Gansu Province, a type that
serves as a precedent for modern strut-
frame bridges.

Suspension Bridges
Fig. 8: Yinping Bridgc'
l\o methods for constructing chain
suspension bridges are shown in Fig.
10. drawn from the Ming Dvnast'
book "Notes of Scenic Spots in Shu-
zhong (Sichuan)". written around
1600. Later in the 17th Century. the
German C.C. Schraman painted the
iron chain Yunnan Bridge (Fig. 11) and
attributed it to the 1st century. The
suspending chains were joined with
the horizontal base chains, so it can be
only considered a flexible suspension
chain bridge without stiffening girders. Fig. 9: Ganna,z Bridge

As for chain bridges with stiffening

girders as shown in Fig. 10, no ancient
examples survive. Since wood was the
only material likely to have been used
for stiffening girders. it is difficult to
imagine timber girders with very large
spans, although middle piers were ap-
parently sometimes employed.
The largest modern suspension bridge
in China is the Dazi Bridge in Tibet.
with a main span of 500 m. The largest
composite cable-stayed bridge of dou-
ble tower form in China is the Nanpu
Bridge in Shanghai. completed in
1991. with a main span of 423 m. At
present. several cable-stayed bridges
with a main span length of 400 m and
more are being constructed in China.
These projects include the composite
cable-stayed Yangpu Bridge in Shang-
hai with a main span 602 m and other
Fig. 10: T;'.o suspension nethods using
prestressed concrete cable-stayed
chain
bridges with main spans exceeding
400 m. All these bridges are for high-
way use.
Conclusion
The art and science of bridge building
has been long practised in China. An-
cient engineers found practicable solu-
tions considering the demands of to-
pography and the limitations of availa-
ble materials. The study of Chinese
bridge history is itself a fairly young
discipline and much more work is
needed to uncover modern engineer-
ing's debt to the past. Fig. 11: Iron chain Vunnan Bridge

Siructural Engineering International 1/94 Reports 43