Xijin Bridge (), is an ancient Chinese

covered bridge A covered bridge is a timber-truss bridge with a roof, decking, and siding, which in most covered bridges create an almost complete enclosure. The purpose of the covering is to protect the wooden structural members from the weather. Uncovered woo ...

or ''lángqiáo'' ( 廊桥) located in Yongkang,

Jinhua Jinhua is a prefecture-level city in central Zhejiang province in eastern China. It borders the provincial capital of Hangzhou to the northwest, Quzhou to the southwest, Lishui to the south, Taizhou, Zhejiang, Taizhou to the east, and Shaoxin ...

Zhejiang Province ) , translit_lang1_type2 = , translit_lang1_info2 = ( Hangzhounese) ( Ningbonese) (Wenzhounese) , image_skyline = 玉甑峰全貌 - panoramio.jpg , image_caption = View of the Yandang Mountains , image_map = Zhejiang i ...

, China. It is the largest covered bridge in Zhejiang Province, and one of the largest in China.

History

The bridge was constructed during the

Ming dynasty The Ming dynasty, officially the Great Ming, was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 1368 to 1644, following the collapse of the Mongol Empire, Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming was the last imperial dynasty of ...

as a wooden bridge. In the 57th year of the Kangxi Era (1718), the bridge was rebuilt, and in the early period of the Yongzheng Era, the bridge's

pier A pier is a raised structure that rises above a body of water and usually juts out from its shore, typically supported by piling, piles or column, pillars, and provides above-water access to offshore areas. Frequent pier uses include fishing, b ...

s were replaced with

stone In geology, rock (or stone) is any naturally occurring solid mass or aggregate of minerals or mineraloid matter. It is categorized by the minerals included, its Chemical compound, chemical composition, and the way in which it is formed. Rocks ...

s to improve its load capacity. At the beginning of the Qianlong Era, the construction of the bridge was finished. During the Jiaqing Era, the bridge was repaired once and in the 12th year (1807), a stone

stele A stele ( ) or stela ( )The plural in English is sometimes stelai ( ) based on direct transliteration of the Greek, sometimes stelae or stelæ ( ) based on the inflection of Greek nouns in Latin, and sometimes anglicized to steles ( ) or stela ...

(

cenotaph A cenotaph is an empty grave, tomb or a monument erected in honor of a person or group of people whose remains are elsewhere or have been lost. It can also be the initial tomb for a person who has since been reinterred elsewhere. Although t ...

) was erected to praise bridge builders and to summarize the history of the bridge. The inscription on the stele is known as ''Xijin Qiao Zhi'' ().

Structural parameters

The bridge is a mixed stone and wooden bridge; the piers are made of stone and its upper structures are mostly wooden. When it was a completely wooden bridge, it had a length of 206.3 meters distributed over 15 piers and 16 spans. After the piers were replaced with stone, it was changed to 12 piers and 13 spans and shortened to 166 meters. Each pier has a length of 5.6 meters, a width of 3.3 meters, and height of 4.6 meters. Between every two piers, there are 6 or 7

girder A girder () is a Beam (structure), beam used in construction. It is the main horizontal support of a structure which supports smaller beams. Girders often have an I-beam cross section composed of two load-bearing ''flanges'' separated by a sta ...

s spanning the tops of piers. Each girder has an average length of 13 meters.

References

*《永康县志》 (''Archive of Yongkang County''), official/governmental archive of Yongkang (Qing Dynasty version). Now Yongkang is no longer a ''county'', but a ''city''. *《西津橋志》 (''Inscript of Xijin Bridge''), a Jiaqing-Era article about the bridge. *《中国桥梁建筑史》 (''History of Chinese Bridges''), a book on the history of Chinese bridges, written by Mao Yisheng. {{Reflist Tourist attractions in Zhejiang Chinese architectural history Bridges in Jinhua Covered bridges in China

History

Structural parameters

See also

References