Today's Waibaidu Bridge is actually the third generation.
The first generation of Waibaidu Bridge was built in 1856, named "Well Bridge", which is a wooden bridge. Suzhou River Bridge Company (the first bridge construction company in the history of China) was built by 20 people (mostly managers of Yihe Xianghang or opium dealers), including Wells of England, Ren Wei and Homer of Baoshun Xianghang. The bridge is137.25m long and 7.015m wide, with a movable deck in the middle, which should be hoisted when the ship passes by.
Wells and others, who built the bridge purely for profit, once claimed that Shanghai Daotaite granted them a patent, and pedestrians had to pay a "bridge crossing tax", which only collected taxes from Chinese, and all vehicles and servants outside the bridge were exempted. Subsequently, Shanghai residents protested angrily, and Cantonese Zhan Ruoyu set up a post office at today's Shanxi intersection to pick up and drop off Chinese passing by on both sides of the strait for free to show his unyielding. Because citizens no longer pay money, it is called "white crossing". Due to public anger, the concession industrial and commercial office built a wooden pontoon bridge near Wells Bridge on 1876, and the bridge was free. Because it is adjacent to the Bund Park, the British called it "Garden Bridge" in those days, and a bronze monument was carved at the bridgehead (the bronze monument was destroyed after 1949), while the common people called it "Waidukou Bridge". . From then on, there is no charge for crossing the bridge here. Wells Bridge was demolished after it was acquired by the Ministry of Industry. This is also the origin of the second generation bridge-"Waibaidu Bridge". In the following decades, people made a slip of the tongue and pronounced it "Waibaidu Bridge", so they followed the established practice. Later, history has come to this day, and the "tolerance" is not just the name of a bridge.
During Guangxu period, after several repairs, the wooden bridge could not meet the needs of traffic development, so the Ministry of Industry decided to build another steel bridge instead. In the thirty-second year of Guangxu, the first pile was laid and completed the following year. The superstructure of the bridge is simply supported riveted steel truss, and the substructure is reinforced concrete abutment, pile foundation and concrete hollow thin slab pier. The span combination of the two holes is 52. 12m, the elevation of the beam bottom is 5.75m, and the tram track is laid on the bridge deck. This is the third generation Waibaidu Bridge.
The construction and design unit of this bridge is Howarth Erskine Co., Ltd. in Britain. The new bridge was put into use in Guangxu thirty-three years (1907), eleven years later than the Eiffel Tower in France. The bridge is 60 feet wide (including 36-foot driveway and 24-foot sidewalk) and 65,438+0,765,438+0 feet long. It was a steel structure with the latest technology at that time (the steel skeleton was made by langford Bridge Company in Britain).
With the achievements of the industrial revolution and the development of science and technology, iron bridges rose in Britain in the18th century, and steel bridges rose in the United States in the19th century. Baidu Bridge is the first all-steel bridge in China. It was built by the Ministry of Industry of Shanghai Concession at that time. All steel products are imported from Britain, and the design and structure of the whole bridge are completed by British engineers and technicians. At that time, similar steel structure bridges, besides Shanghai, also included the Wan Guo Bridge (now jiefang bridge) across the Haihe River in Tianjin, which was built at 1902, five years earlier than the Waibaidu Bridge, and was built by the Ministry of Industry of the French Concession in Tianjin, so it was also called the "French Bridge".
[Edit this paragraph] Waibaidu Bridge Repair Scheme
Shanghai people have always kept such a bridge in their memory-Waibaidu Bridge. In the eyes of ordinary people, the Waibaidu Bridge has always been tough, with nearly 30,000 cars passing through it every day. People have gradually turned a blind eye to this century-old city landmark.
In order to cooperate with the comprehensive traffic reconstruction and underground passage construction on the Bund, the Waibaidu Bridge at the intersection of Suzhou River and Huangpu River is about to bid a short farewell to Shanghai residents, and the collective memory of a city begins to emerge. On March 1 2008, people's nostalgia for this century-old bridge reached its peak before it was demolished for overhaul.
In April 2008, the Waibaidu Bridge, except the pier, was demolished from its original place and sent to Shanghai Shipyard for maintenance. By March 2009, the bridge will return to its original position.
Imagine that if there is no bridge, there will be no witness of urban development and no carrier of collective memory. The overhaul of Waibaidu Bridge reminds people that it is the responsibility and mission of the city to protect the century-old bridge from falling down.
The designer reminded the maintenance.
Waibaidu Bridge is an all-steel bridge. In the eyes of ordinary people, it is always tough, with nearly 30 thousand cars passing by it every day. Perhaps the city has a new bright spot every day. Before this overhaul, people gradually turned a blind eye to this century-old city landmark and just took it for granted that it was the hub of urban transportation. However, at the end of 2007, Shanghai Municipal Engineering Administration Bureau received a letter from a British design company, which stated that "the design service life of Waibaidu Bridge is 100, and it has expired, so please pay attention to the maintenance of this bridge" and "it is suggested that the underwater concrete abutment should be repaired with wooden piles and concrete hollow slab piers". Of course, the purpose of the British design unit is to exempt the bridge from legal responsibility after the accident, but this also reflects the professional and rigorous attitude of the designer on the other hand.
The designer's solemn reminder provides a powerful reference for the decision-making of municipal design and construction. The words 1907 beside the nameplate of "Waibaidu Bridge" remind us that this old bridge has a history of one hundred years.
"Repairing the old as the old" is extended for 50 years
In Shanghai Urban Construction Archives, there are 6 volumes of design and construction drawings of Waibaidu Bridge, and archives of overhaul drawings over the years. The yellowed official design drawing indicates that the builder of Waibaidu Bridge is "Ministry of Industry of Shanghai Special Municipal Committee", and the drawing date is1August 25th, 903. Although it is hand-painted, the lines are finely crafted, and every data is not bad. This is the "birth certificate" and amulet of the old bridge, and it is the most authoritative basis for how to "repair the old as before" the old bridge.
The ground cultural relics department of Shanghai Cultural Relics Management Committee said that the restoration plan of the ancient bridge had been reported to National Cultural Heritage Administration earlier and was approved. According to the requirements of the cultural relics department, the bridge body above the lowest water level of Suzhou River will remain its original appearance. This is a bold and scientific maintenance and protection scheme. This scheme improves the safety factor of cultural relics protection in the passage construction and can ensure the Waibaidu Bridge to be used for another 50 years.
Prior to this, the traffic volume of Waibaidu Bridge reached 30,000 vehicles per day, and after that, Waibaidu Bridge will only be open to pedestrians. Protective measures are in place to ensure that the old bridge will not disappear in our field of vision to the greatest extent. In the future, ultrasonic inspection will be carried out every 10 year to ensure the health of the bridge.
Although the riveting technology used in the construction of Waibaidu Bridge is rarely used in modern bridge design. However, during the overhaul, all rivets will still be tested one by one, and every steel truss that has been in service for an extended period will receive a health check. The damaged parts will be replaced, the peeling paint will be derusted and coated with waterproof paint that does not deviate from the original color. It is reported that the Waibaidu Bridge is expected to be restored to its original state after the overhaul is completed around March 2009, and the service life of the bridge is expected to be extended for another 50 years.