| The Yangtze River is 6,380 km long.
It is the longest river in China and all of Asia and the third longest
in the world.
Construction of the Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge
began on January 1960 and finished on December 1968. It was constructed
from beginning to end by the Chinese. Engineering of the abutment
piers was extremely difficult because the Yangtze River is wide
here and the rapids reach three meters per second.
The bridge consists of a 6,772-meter-long railway
section and a 4,589-meter-long highway section. The section over
the river is 1,577 meters long. According to the Guinness Book of
Records, it is the longest double-deck bridge in the world.
The 97.6-meter-long bridge head consists of
a 10-story twin towers, each measuring 70 meters in height, 17 meters
in length and 11 meters in width. Downstairs in the main hall is
a 7.5-meter-high statue of Mao Ze-dong.
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