Yangtze River Bridge

Tour China with the Pros

Located on northwest side of the Yangtze River in Nanjing, the Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge is the first double-decker road-rail truss designed and built with Chinese technology in China, which crosses the Yangtze River between Pukou and Xiaguan in Nanjing.

It was completed and opened for traffic in 1968. It was the third bridge over the Yangtze River after the Wuhan Yangtze River Bridge and the Chongqing Baishatuo Yangtze River Bridge. In the 1960s, the Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge was entered into the Guinness Book of World Records with the honor of “The Longest Road-rail Truss.”

The upper deck, a part of China National Highway 104, is nearly 3 miles (4,589 meter) long and 50 feet (15 meters) wide, on which 4 large cars could pass through simultaneously, on each side of which stands the 2-meter-plus-wide sidewalks with 150 pairs of magnolia flower-shaped streetlights.

The lower deck is more than 4 miles (6,772 meter) long and 46 feet (14 meters) wide, on which a double-track railway is built and two trains could pass through simultaneously. The lower deck of the bridge completes the Beijing-Shanghai Railway, which had been divided by the Yangtze for many years.

The right bridge on the river is a mile (1,577 meters) long and over 500 feet (160 meters) wide, on each side of which are railings embedded with 200 iron embossments. The bridge boasts  approximately 80,000 vehicles and 200 trains that pass through it each day.

The bridge is like a rainbow crawling along the Yangtze River, which is quite overwhelming and impressive, especially at night when the 1,048 lights on the railings and 540 metal halide lamps on the piers illuminate the river as bright as daytime. With 150 pairs of streetlights on the bridge and 228 sodium lamps atop huge sculptures, the bridge is like a string of luminous pearls embedded on the Yangtze River.