Dragon Bridge

The dragon in Da Nang weighs nearly 9,000 tons of steel. Even so, it flies across the Hàn River, its head held high toward the sea. And on weekend evenings, the dragon's mouth does something stranger still. It breathes out fire, and then it breathes out water.

It sounds hard to believe. Dragons are not real. Steel that heavy cannot fly. And fire and water never agree to share a place, yet here both come out of one mouth. The way to untangle these puzzles, one at a time, is to begin where the dragon lies.

That dragon is Cầu Rồng, the Dragon Bridge. It is the sixth bridge across the Hàn River. It sits on the city's east-west axis. One end meets Nguyễn Văn Linh Street on the west bank. The other end meets Võ Văn Kiệt Street on the east bank. It is the shortest route from Da Nang International Airport to the seaside on the eastern side of the city.

The bridge is 666 meters long. Its deck carries six lanes of traffic and two lanes for people on foot. By day, the streams of vehicles simply glide across the river, running the whole length of the dragon's body. Few of the people on them stop to think that they are traveling beside a creature of legend.

The first answer lies in the dragon's body. The dragon is not the road. The dragon is a winding arch of steel, 568 meters long. The deck is made of box-shaped steel girders, hung from that arch by cables. So the dragon is not simply flying on its own. It is carrying the whole road beneath it, and all the people who cross the river every day.

The dragon has everything a dragon should: a head, a body, a tail, and even scales. The head alone is more than 18 meters long, and it weighs nearly 200 tons. The body runs for 530 meters, rising and dipping above the water. The tail is more than 19 meters long. The scales by themselves weigh nearly 120 tons.

The steel girders below were built in 34 segments. The heaviest segment weighs 144 tons, and each one took about 12 days to finish. Then the whole structure was given five coats of paint. The paint protects the steel from corrosion, and it also gives the dragon the color of its skin.

Work began on July 19, 2009. Nearly four years later, on March 29, 2013, the bridge was opened. The date marked the 38th anniversary of the day Da Nang changed hands.

The next puzzle is why it is a dragon at all, and not a bridge that runs straight.

At the end of 2005, the city held a design competition. Eight consulting firms from Vietnam, Japan, Germany and the United States took part. The winning design beat many other proposals, and it came from an American consulting firm. The figure they set over the river was a dragon of the Lý dynasty.

The Lý dynasty ruled from 1009 to 1225, from the 11th century into the 13th. Dragons of that time have a very particular shape. Their bodies are round, slender and long, curving in many soft bends like waves on water. Their mouths often hold a pearl. It is a gentle, graceful dragon, and it carries the look of the Vietnamese people.

There is an old story, too. When Emperor Lý Thái Tổ moved the capital to the citadel of Đại La, he traveled there with his royal fleet. From his boat, the emperor saw a golden dragon rise up. So the new capital was named Thăng Long, which means the dragon soaring up. It is the city now called Hanoi. More than 1,000 years later, that soft and supple dragon has risen once again. This time it is made of steel, and it rises over a river in central Vietnam.

The dragon's head is raised high, looking out toward the sea. Its whole body winds across the river, as if it were slithering out to open water, waiting only for a gust of wind to take flight.

When night falls, the dragon changes its clothes. More than 2,500 smart lights come on along its body. Their colors can change for each of the city's festivals and events. The dragon's reflection falls on the Hàn River and shimmers with every ripple. It looks as if there were two dragons, one in the sky and one in the waves.

And then comes the hardest thing to believe. On weekend evenings and on major holidays, people line both banks of the river. They look up toward the dragon's head, and they wait. Suddenly, real fire bursts out of the dragon's mouth. The fire comes in two rounds of nine bursts each, and it lasts about two minutes. Each time the flame flares, the whole stretch of river seems to light up, in time with the dragon's breath.

The moment the fire dies, the dragon changes its mind. This time it is water. The water comes in three rounds over about three minutes, and it spreads into a white mist. Under the changing lights, the mist glitters in the night, then slowly melts into the air beside the river.

The dragon is real, because people built it out of steel, cables and countless days of work. The steel can fly, because the dragon's body is a curved arch strong enough to carry a whole road. Fire and water can come out of one mouth because they take turns. The fire finishes first, and only then does the water come, so the two never have to meet.

The night grows a little deeper. The last of the mist settles onto the river. The dragon of nearly 9,000 tons of steel lies still again among the lights. Its head is still raised toward the sea, as if it had never breathed fire, and never breathed water.