Jinhua Bridge

Jinhua Bridge

Jinhua bridge was built in 1888, the 14th year of Guangxu reign of Qing Dynasty. It is the first cantilever bridge in Tianjin. It replaced the floating bridge at the old fellow gate, which is commonly known as the old iron bridge.

Jinhua bridge in Tianjin

In 1662, the Qing government set up Tianjin chaoguan on both sides of the North Bank of the south canal, which was in charge of the taxation of goods. At that time, the traffic across the river was mainly ferry. In 1716, a floating bridge was built on the south canal, connecting Hebei Street in the north and beimenwai street in the south. In 1882, Li Hongzhang, then governor of Zhili, wanted to transform the floating bridge in front of the governor's office into a Western-style iron bridge. Because he was worried about the inconvenience of the passage of water vessels under the bridge, he put it on hold. In 1888, under the leadership of Li Hongzhang, it was decided to build an open type railway bridge to solve the traffic problems of both land and water. British technicians were invited to design the bridge. The bridge is named "Jinhua bridge", and becomes the first cantilever open type western style iron floating bridge in Tianjin. Tianjin people commonly call it "old fellow bridge". According to the picture of Baojia in Jinmen in Qing Dynasty, there was a place called Jinhua garden on the southwest Bank of Jinhua bridge, which should be related to the origin of Jinhua bridge. In August 1904, Jinhua bridge was rebuilt into a new type of iron bridge. The bridge body is divided into four sections, and the middle two sections can be raised. The construction cost is 125000 Liang. The old iron bridge in the original site was relocated to the Jiajia bridge (originally a wooden bridge) on the Jinzhong River and named Jinzhong bridge. On March 13, 1905, the opening ceremony of Jinhua bridge in Tianjin was held. In 1917, Tianjin was hit by floods. The south canal was cut and straightened. Jinhua bridge was also moved to the chaoguan floating bridge in beidaguan, north of Hebei Street and south of beimenwai street. It was also called beidaguan bridge. At that time, Jinhua bridge was 37.6 meters long and 10.3 meters wide, with three holes across the south canal. On both sides of the bridge truss, there are sidewalks 1.5 meters wide, which are higher than the bridge deck. The deck is made of wood, and the load of the bridge body is limited to about 6 tons of vehicles. The substructure is stone abutment, and the medium pier is small caisson foundation, commonly known as iron pot. The middle hole is a double leaf vertical swing lower bearing opening span, which is opened manually. In the 1980s, in the process of widening beimenwai street and Hebei Street, Jinhua bridge was rebuilt and became a highway bridge.

Jinhua bridge in Hunan Province

In Taojiang County, Hunan Province, not far from the county seat, there used to be a village called jinhuaqiao, which has been merged with other villages to form dashiwan village. Jinhua bridge and dashiwan are neighboring villages. It is said that many of the people in these two villages are descendants of the Wang surname in Yiwu, Jinhua, Zhejiang Province. In order to commemorate their hometown, Jinhua bridge has a long history.

Address: Hebei Street

Longitude: 117.17922

Latitude: 39.14939

Chinese PinYin : Jin Hua Qiao