Luanhe railway bridge

Luanhe railway bridge

Heda railway bridge is located on the main channel of Luanhe River northeast of laozhan village, luanzhou Town, Luan county, Tangshan City, Hebei Province. As the first large railway bridge in modern China, it has a history of more than 120 years. Luanhe railway bridge was the key node of railway transportation between North China and Northeast China at that time. In 1892, Zhan Tianyou, a famous Chinese railway engineer, participated in the design and construction. In 1935, a new double track bridge was built 45 meters upstream. After the new bridge was opened to traffic, the old bridge was retired for a time, and it was changed into a highway bridge after 1949. In May 1973, Luanhe County Transportation Bureau overhauled the bridge. In 1974, the new highway bridge in the lower reaches of Luanhe River was put into use, and the Luanhe railway bridge was stopped. In April 2013, Luanhe railway bridge was announced as the seventh batch of national key cultural relics protection units by the State Council.

Construction process

1、 The origin of bridge repair and Zhan Tianyou's "four great" creation

In 1877, Li Hongzhang appointed Tang Tingshu to establish Kaiping Mining Bureau in order to supply raw coal for military enterprises such as Beiyang Navy, ship merchants Bureau and Tianjin Machinery Bureau. In 1878, he opened the first shaft in Tangshan mine. To meet the needs of coal transportation, Tang Xu railway, the earliest self built and still used standard railway in China, was born in 1881. In 1886, Kaiping railway company was established to buy Tang Xu railway and operate it independently. The next year, the railway was extended to Lutai. In September 1885, the Qing government established the "Premier's naval affairs yamen", which unified command of the Navy and concurrently took charge of railway affairs. On March 5, 1887, the "naval yamen" started from the need of national defense, and the Qing government suggested that the tanglu Railway "connect Dagu north bank in the South and Shanhaiguan in the north." After approval, Kaiping railway company will be reorganized and expanded into China Railway Company, with additional commercial shares and government funds to actively construct roads. In 1889, the railway began to be built from Tangshan to the northeast. In 1892, it was built on the Luanhe River. In the same year, the construction of the Luanhe River Bridge began. After its completion in May 1894, the Luanhe railway bridge became the longest railway bridge in China at that time, and it was also a landmark building on the railway.

In the process of building the Luanhe railway bridge, Zhan Tianyou made four innovations: first, he moved the base site of the bridge from the mountain pass to the south. The river was wide and the water potential was greatly reduced. Although the design length of the bridge was lengthened, the piling, column, material transportation and boating could be carried out. The second is to borrow the extra large long pine wood left by Russia in the construction of Dalian military port, and saw its left and right sides into straight and smooth smooth smooth surface. The long pine wood is arranged in a round shape, and the gap is dense and impermeable, so that the pier foundation can be cleaned and the pier can be erected smoothly. Third, at that time, the Pier Casting needed to buy Cement from abroad, which was expensive. Zhan Tianyou made use of local materials and used the "Zhuangzi stone" and "terrace stone" in Yushan, Wushan, so that the stone masons could make them carefully, and the size was uniform, which greatly saved money. The fourth is to solve the problem of binder between the stone bridge piers, otherwise the bridge piers will collapse in the flood or freezing in winter. Zhan Tianyou specially invited the "imperial craftsman" who was engaged in underwater operation from nearby to consult the "ten thousand year prison" method of underwater stone and mud bonding. After several twists and turns, Zhan Tianyou got the secret recipe, which made the 18 huge piers stand tall and still not loose.

Bridge status

2、 Current situation of Luanhe railway bridge

Luanhe railway bridge consists of three parts: west bridgehead approach bridge, east bridgehead approach bridge and main body of the bridge, including 16 piers, 2 bridgeheads and 17 holes. Among them, the upper truss steel beam has 9 holes, 31 meters per hole; the lower truss steel beam has 5 holes, 64 meters per hole; the wind thunder steel beam has 1 hole, 32.2 meters; the I-beam has 2 holes, 24 meters in total, with a total length of 665 meters. The net width of bridge deck is 3.3m, 3.27M, 3.9m and 4.5m respectively, with a total area of 2660m2.

As for the length of luanzhou railway bridge, it is generally believed that it is 665 meters long. However, according to the records of luanzhou, "Luanhe River Bridge is 217 feet long, 4 feet 6 inches wide, 2 feet wide, 2 feet high, 9 feet high on the water surface, 16 piers, 17 voids in total, and 5 voids in the middle, each 20 feet wide, each 20 feet wide. Each pier is 2 feet long and 1 foot wide, and the cost is 782.4959 yuan Four percent. " According to the measurement system of Qing Dynasty, the bridge should be 695.872m long and 6.4m wide. According to the Beijing Fengshui Railway Travel Guide published in 1917, the Luanhe railway bridge is 330 feet long, which is 100.584 meters in metric system, which is far from the actual length of Luanhe railway bridge. The author of the article "past and present of Luanhe bridge" thinks that its length is 670.6 meters.

On the north and south sides of the West abutment, the Luanhe railway bridge is also engraved with Taiji pictures, commonly known as "yin yang fish pictures", each about 1 meter in diameter. In addition, there are four Dragon decorations, which are respectively decorated on the north and south sides of the East abutment and the East and West ends of the steel frame beam. The stone carving of "giant dragon Tengyun" on the East abutment is still intact. The whole stone carving is 8.5 meters long and 1.2 meters high, with the dragon head facing east and the dragon ball straight. The four claws jump vividly. The "two dragons playing with pearls" on the steel frame beam is a copper casting component (which has been lost). The dragon body is dancing and flying, and its body is vivid.

Raw materials for bridge construction

3、 The source of raw materials for bridge repair

A lot of steel, cement and stones are needed in the process of bridge repair, so where do the raw materials of Luanhe railway bridge come from?

1. Steel

At that time, there was only one steelmaking plant in Guizhou Qingxi iron works, which was built by the Westernization faction in 1887. However, its management and capital were difficult to sustain after three months of operation. Since then, it has been shut down until 1890. Since Hubei Hanyang Iron Works began to be organized in 1890, Zhang Zhidong repeatedly recommended to Li Hongzhang to sell rails. However, Li Hongzhang ordered rails from foreign countries on the grounds of pressing time. In addition, he was worried that the quality of domestic rails was inferior to that of foreign countries. Moreover, Hanyang Iron Works did not start steelmaking until September 1893, when more pig iron and less steel were produced. In this way, until 1892, when the Luanhe railway bridge was built, there was no steel available in China, so it could only be imported. Since the chief engineer in charge at that time was a British, Britain had an advantage in providing steel. In 1891, the rails from Linxi to Luanhe to Shanhaiguan were ordered from England, and the rails on Luanhe railway bridge were no exception. In addition, the steel needed for the top and bottom truss steel beams, I-beams and wind thunder steel beams are all imported from England.

2. Cement and stone

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, like the iron and steel industry, only Tangshan fine soil cotton plant (the predecessor of Qixin cement plant), which was founded by the Westernization Movement in 1889, can produce cement in China. However, the purpose of this plant is to "build Fort buildings and other necessary things, and it is more suitable for various projects of bridges, gates, dams, rivers and seawalls". In addition, the products produced should be "used by the ordnance office first, and provided by the government" In addition, at that time, Tangshan fine soil cotton factory "burned foreign ash, the cost was huge, and the ash was not as good as native lime", which caused no one to interfere, and finally stopped in 1893. Therefore, cement can only be imported from abroad, but cement has to be transported to China by sea, and the freight is extremely expensive. In the face of difficulties, Zhan Tianyou took local materials and replaced cement with local stone, which greatly saved money. In addition, in order to solve the problem of the bond material between the stones used to build the bridge piers, Zhan Tianyou used a secret recipe to build underwater stone barriers and to bond with mud.

Since the completion of Luanhe railway bridge, it has become an important traffic road from Tangshan to Qinhuangdao, providing convenience for passenger and freight transportation between the two places and even Tianjin and Beijing. In addition to the military purpose at the beginning of the construction, it played an important role in the coal transportation of Kailuan mine. The 1976 Tangshan earthquake affected Luanxian County, and both the upstream double line railway bridge and the downstream double line highway bridge of Luanhe railway bridge were seriously damaged. However, the Luanhe railway bridge, which has experienced more than 90 years of wind, frost, rain, snow and several floods, has withstood the test of strong earthquakes, and can drive cars only after simple repair, providing convenient conditions for a large number of relief materials to enter Tangshan.

In 1998, Luanhe railway bridge was announced as a cultural relic protection unit in Tangshan City, the fourth batch of cultural relic protection units in Hebei Province in 2001, and the seventh batch of national protection units by the State Council in 2013. As the first large-scale railway bridge in China, it witnessed the history of the beginning, development, glory and decline of China's modern industry, and is a rare modern industrial heritage.

Address: Heci line, Luan county, Tangshan City

Longitude: 118.7731877122

Latitude: 39.757386760377

Ticket information: free.

Chinese PinYin : Luan He Da Tie Qiao