Long Bien Bridge

Seen from the bank of the Red River, Long Biên Bridge is a band of reddish-brown steel laid across the water. Span joins span, running on and on to the far bank.

Its shape is unusual. It is not smooth like a modern bridge. Everything is out in the open: the crossbeams, the diagonal braces, the bolts, the joints. This is French industrial architecture of the 19th century, a style that does not hide its structure but puts it on show.

And this bridge has lived through more upheaval than almost any other landmark in Hanoi. It was built, it was broken, and it was joined together again.

The story begins at the end of the 19th century. Paul Doumer, the Governor-General of Indochina, decided to build a great bridge over the Red River. It would link Hanoi with the port of Hải Phòng, and with the railway up to Yunnan, in China. A French company, Daydé and Pillé, won the contract. Its design was based on the Tolbiac Bridge, in the 13th district of Paris. Its winning bid was 5,390,794 French francs. The number is so long that saying it aloud takes a breath. By the time the bridge was finished, the total cost had reached 6,200,000 francs.

The groundbreaking ceremony was held on September 12, 1898. In all, 3,000 Vietnamese laborers built the bridge, alongside 40 French experts. On the worksite by the river, the piers rose one after another, until there were 20 of them. Each one stood more than 40 meters tall, counting its foundation under the riverbed. Then 19 steel spans were lifted into place, reaching from pier to pier and slowly stretching across the water.

All of this took 5,600 tons of rolled steel and 30,000 cubic meters of stone. On top of that came more than 100 tons of cast iron, more than 100 tons of iron, and even 7 tons of lead.

On February 28, 1902, at 8:30 in the morning, the first train rolled out onto the bridge. On board were Emperor Thành Thái and Governor-General Doumer, who had come for the opening ceremony. The sound of iron wheels rang out over the brand-new steel spans, between the sky and the water.

The main bridge is 2,290 meters long. With 896 meters of approach ramps added, the whole bridge runs about 3,186 meters.

At the time it was called the Doumer Bridge, after the very Governor-General who had it built. Later, the bridge was given a new name: Long Biên. Since Hanoi changed hands in 1954, it has carried that name to this day.

The first half of this story is about steel, stone and trains. The second half is much harder.

From 1965 to 1972, American aircraft bombed northern Vietnam to cut its transport links. At that time, Long Biên Bridge carried the only railway line across the Red River into Hanoi. To cut the railway, the bombers aimed at the bridge. Over those seven years, the bridge was bombed 14 times in all.

Operation Rolling Thunder alone struck the bridge 10 times. At times the bridge was cut clean through. Trains could not cross, and people had to use ferries. But the workers repaired it. Then the bridge was broken again. And again they repaired it.

In 1972, the bridge was bombed four more times. Then, in December of that year, came Operation Linebacker Two. American B-52 bombers struck Hanoi for 12 days and nights, starting on December 18.

The 1972 raids alone damaged as much as 1,500 meters of the bridge. Across all the raids, nine spans and four piers were severely wrecked. The bridge was built with 19 spans, so nearly half of them were once badly broken.

Throughout the war, the bridge itself also served as high ground for anti-aircraft gun positions. Anti-aircraft gunners held their posts right at the highest points of the steel frame and fired up at the incoming planes. By the time Linebacker Two ended, 81 American aircraft had been shot down, by Vietnam's count. Among them were 34 B-52s. In Vietnam, those 12 days and nights came to be remembered by a name: Hanoi, Điện Biên Phủ in the Air. The name recalls Điện Biên Phủ, the 1954 battle in which Việt Minh forces defeated the French.

On December 30, 1972, the bombs stopped falling on Hanoi. That same day, Vietnamese workers began repairing the bridge. By February 11, 1973, it was open again.

Most of the broken spans were replaced with steel girders of a newer type. So today, some spans date from 1902, and others were rebuilt in the 1970s. That is why the bridge looks so unusual. It is not quite old, and not quite new. It is both at once.

Today Long Biên Bridge has retired from its role as a main traffic route. The heavy work has passed to newer bridges, such as Chương Dương and Thanh Trì. Another of them is Nhật Tân. The old bridge now carries only trains, motorbikes, bicycles and people on foot.

People crossing on foot walk along narrow paths on either side, while the railway runs right down the middle. Above, the diagonal braces weave into one another. Below runs the river.

Under the bridge, in the middle of the river, lies a sandbank built up from river silt. It is farmed, with vegetable plots and banana groves, and a community lives there in makeshift homes. In the middle of a big city, people still grow bananas by the river, right in the shadow of a bridge more than a century old. It is a rare sight.

Dawn and dusk are the finest times to stand on the bridge. At those hours, the light slants through the steel spans, scatters squares of light and shadow over the walkway, and then falls on the water. With luck, a train will run down the middle of the bridge, its iron wheels ringing against the steel frame. Then the sound fades toward the far bank. All that is left are the reddish-brown spans, some old and some new, quietly joining the two banks of the Red River, as the bridge has done since that first morning in 1902.