page_title: Bridges and tunnels across the Yangtze River
section_title: Pontoon bridges
hierarchical_section_title: Bridges and tunnels across the Yangtze River / History / Bridges in antiquity / Pontoon bridges
caption_attribution_description: English: The Jianchunmen Pontoon Bridge (建春門浮橋), or Dongjin Bridge (東津橋) in Ganzhou metropolitan area
context_page_description: The bridges and tunnels across the Yangtze River carry rail and road traffic across China's longest and largest river and form a vital part of the country's transportation infrastructure. The river bisects China proper from west to east, and every major north-south bound highway and railway must cross the Yangtze. Large urban centers along the river such as Chongqing, Wuhan, and Nanjing also have urban mass transit rail lines crossing the Yangtze.
  Pontoon bridges have been used by militaries for two thousand years on the Yangtze, but until the completion of the Wuhan Yangtze River Bridge in 1957, there were no permanent bridges along the main stretch of the river known as Chang Jiang, from Yibin to the river mouth in Shanghai, a distance of 2,884 km. Since then, over 75 bridges and six tunnels have been built over this stretch, the overwhelming majority since 1990. They reflect a broad array of bridge designs and, in many cases, represent significant achievements in modern bridge engineering. Several rank among the world's longest suspension, cable-stayed, arch bridges, truss and box girder bridges as well as some of the highest and tallest bridges.
context_section_description: The earliest recorded pontoon bridge over the Yangtze was the Jiangguan Pontoon Bridge built in AD 35 by Gongsun Shu, the ruler of Sichuan, in the war with the Han Emperor Liu Xiu. Gongsun Shu built the pontoon across a narrow part of the river between Jingmen and Yichang in (modern Hubei Province) to block the Han Emperor's navy from sailing upriver into Sichuan.  The pontoon was burned in battle and Liu Xiu went on to capture Sichuan.
  In 570, the Northern Zhou general Chen Teng built a crude suspension bridge across the Xiling Gorge using thick rope and reeds to carry food and provisions for his troops on the south bank.  The bridge was cut apart by boats lined with sharp knives sent down river by the Chen general Zhang Shaoda.
  During the Tang Dynasty, a pontoon bridge was built in Sangouzhen in the Qutang Gorge in 619.
  In 974, during the Song Emperor Zhao Kuangyin's conquest of the Southern Tang, a pontoon over 1,000 meters long linked together by bamboo chains was erected in just three days at Caishiji (Ma'anshan, Anhui Province) and enabled the Song Army to advance swiftly across the river and capture Nanjing, the Southern Tang capital.
  The Taiping rebels made extensive use of pontoons on the Yangtze in their campaign against the Qing Dynasty in the Yangtze Basin.  In December 30, 1852, they built two pontoons nearly 3,000 meters long in a fortnight's time at Baishazhou and Yingwuzhou in Wuhan to move troops from Hanyang on the north bank to the Wuchang on the south bank.  The Taipings tied together small boats into twos and threes and steered these preassembled pieces simultaneously into the river, and used iron anchors to set the pontoons instead of chains.  They added leather-covered walls to the bridges and added towers and firing positions.
  Pontoon bridges have not been a feasible long-term solution to cross river transport because they block boat traffic on the Yangtze, a major conduit for travelers and cargo between the coast and the Chinese interior.
caption: The Song dynasty Dongjin Bridge over the Gan River, a Yangtze tributary in Jiangxi.
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