Qiantang River Bridge is the primary anterior double Decker Bridge connecting Shanghai to Hangzhou and nearest city Ningbo, built over Qiantang River. This is a crucial rail transportation link bridge and one of the first of its kind built in China. The engineering skills are unequivocal. The top tire of the bridge is 1,453 meter long allows car to cross the river and bottom tier is being used for railway traffic. The architect of the bridge was engineer Mao Yisheng. The bridge was commissioned in 1934 and opened for public traffic in the year 1937. During the war with Japanese Imperial Army, engineer Mao Yisheng forced to blast the bridge to resist the invading Japanese Imperial Army. After the war, after the Japanese were defeated, he again rebuilt the entire bridge in new look and style. Due to peculiarity of the bridge design, the local started to call the bridge as "Rainbow Bridge"
Towering tidal bore view point
The Qiantang River Bridge is a good viewing point to watch the towering tidal bore forming in the Qiantang River. The best view point is not far off down river from the Six Hamonies Pagoda. Tidal bore is an annual natural phenomenon when the monthly bore reaches its maximum peak level of height intensity on the 18th day of the eight lunar months. The highest of this phenomena is normally happens during September or October. This natural phenomenon attracts lots of spectators and thousands of people spend their time over the bridge to watch the spectacular event.
Scientific analysis confirms the natural phenomena due to the gravitational pull of the stars and planets. The pull is supported by the centrifugal force generated by the rotation of the earth in its axis and also the typical bottleneck shape of the Hangzhou Bay forces the tide to come in. It stays there and won't get ebbed due to the peculiar shape of the bay.
The towering tidal bore view is a spectacular event. This particular natures wonder attracts millions of people from China and abroad. The most spectacular event of the tidal bore is during the eighteenth day of the eight lunar months which is also the mid-autumn period. The surging tide will rise up to 30 feet with roaring thunder noises are so horrifying experience. Watching the tide is having a history of 2000 years. People used to celebrate this day in the form of festivals. The watching tide function became so popular during Tang Dynasty.
The bridge rebuilt after demolition
Going back to the specification of the bridge, the bridge has 15 piers and 16 arches. The upper road deck is 1453 meters long and the lower rail track is 1322.1 meter. The rail way is single lane. The structure of the bridge looks like a rainbow. After the completion of the bridge, the engineer who built the bridge was forced to blow down the bridge 89 days after declaring opened it for the public.
The bridge faced its inevitable destiny as the Japanese army started their advancement towards Hangzhou city. In 1937 at 5 PM, when Chinese could see the advancing Japanese army, the bridge was blown out by the engineer who was in charge of the construction of this bridge. The bridge took 925 days to complete its work and kept opened for the public just for 89 days! Later the bridge was rebuilt 1953.