More than 70 years ago, Huang, Huang Yinan, Zeng Hannan, Rao Furong, Liu Yaochu, Lu Gengfu and other enlightened people in Meicheng mobilized the people of Meizhou and the vast number of overseas Chinese to build one of the few reinforced concrete bridges in Guangdong Province at that time, and wrote a touching chapter of Meicheng folks at home and abroad who loved their country and their hometown.
Huang, Zeng Hannan and others often get together to discuss the problem of building a bridge. Huang worked as a county magistrate in Guangxi in his early years. Later, because he sympathized with the revolutionaries and hated officialdom, he voluntarily gave up his official position and returned to his hometown of Meizhou. Because of Huang's resourcefulness and good popularity, the politicians in Meicheng visited many times. Huang is good at charity and regards repairing bridges and roads as a great pleasure. Zeng Hannan was originally a teacher in a mountain village primary school. In order to avoid the harassment of bandits, he came to Meicheng and taught at Shuinan Public School. He is honest, steady and generous, is a charity middleman, and is particularly enthusiastic about building bridges and roads in his hometown. Huang, Zeng Hannan and others are determined to build the Meijiang Bridge to benefit the people of Meizhou and tourists from all over the world. After some planning, they decided to mobilize the people of Meizhou to carry forward the spirit of patriotism and love for their hometown and try their best to donate money to build the bridge, and on the other hand, to use the advantages of overseas Chinese hometown to mobilize overseas Chinese in Meizhou to donate money. As a result, Peng Jingyi, the county magistrate of Meixian County (now Meixian District of Meizhou City), and the promoters immediately set up a preparatory team to build the bridge and started work immediately.
In Meicheng in October, the sky is high and the clouds are light, and the autumn wind is cool, which is a good time for construction. 193111On October 26th, the construction of Meijiang Bridge was officially started. At that time, it was unheard of to build reinforced concrete bridges on rivers, not only in Meicheng, but also in eastern Guangdong, and probably rare in Guangdong Province. This fully shows the diligence, courage and wisdom of Hakka people. When the bridge was built, there was a serious shortage of funds and the construction equipment was extremely backward. In order to ensure the quality of the project, the Yellow River Project had to be suspended. So he sent Zeng Hannan to Shantou to consult his former good friend, Gong, the father of a French engineer in Shantou. Roughly speaking, to complete such a large project, it will cost about 1.2 million yuan, which is an astronomical figure for Meizhou. In order to make the project go smoothly, the preparatory group ran around and called on everyone to pledge. Around this time, more than 8000 people donated money. Various merchants and shops also borrowed cement and steel on credit from the bridge preparation team. When no more funds were available, Huang introduced Dexing, Jinshengzhuang, Huangchangyuan and other firms to lend money to help, and official Chen mortgaged a dock, and at the same time wrote to mobilize overseas Chinese in Meixian County (now Meixian District, Meizhou City) to mortgage. As a result, Mrs. Hou Guang raised 1.2 million yuan in Nanyang, and Pan Zhi, who returned from visiting relatives in Toyo, donated 1.5 million land. In order to praise Hou Guangfu and Pan Zhi's contribution to Meijiang Bridge, the preparatory group specially wrote praises for them. In Java Bar City, Yan Drama Club held a benefit performance and donated all the money of 265.438 million yuan to the preparatory group. In addition, the Nanyang Overseas Chinese Help Preparatory Group issued three lottery tickets in Nanyang, and the actual income was 2 1223 yuan besides receiving the prize. They gave all this huge sum of money to the preparatory group. With the joint efforts of all parties, Meijiang Bridge was finally initially completed at 1934. After the completion of the bridge, a monument pavilion was built at the northern end of the bridge, which was inlaid with photos and names of major donors to commemorate future generations and make permanent contributions. However, the pavilion was later destroyed and the stone tablet was lost. 199 1 year, Meizhou municipal people's government finally found the relevant information about the construction of the bridge through various efforts, so it allocated funds to rebuild the monument pavilion on the west side of the south bank of the bridge according to the original content for future generations to pay tribute to.
The original Meijiang Bridge was 278.5 meters long and 6.65 meters wide, divided into thirteen holes, and was a multi-arch arc reinforced concrete bridge. At that time, the bridge deck was only paved with wooden boards in the middle, and the two ends of the bridge were stepped on by bricks and stones. Pedestrians stepped on it and vehicles could not pass. 1950, 1965 Meixian People's Government (now Meixian District People's Government of Meizhou City) invested twice to rebuild the cement bridge deck, widen the sidewalks, and add overpasses to approach the bridge, so that vehicles can pass. The newly rebuilt Meijiang Bridge is 300 meters long and 12 meters wide, which is even more magnificent. What people see now is the extension in 1965. 1965, when Mr. Guo Moruo came to Meicheng, he praised Meizhou as a "first-class cultural relic".
After the completion of Meijiang Bridge, the words "Meijiang Bridge" and "Bridge Connection" should be embedded. At that time, the host had publicly collected calligraphers' books and Jia Lian to show the great event. At that time, Meicheng literati wrote books and applied for joint works, and gave their best works at one time. Therefore, the works written by Zhou Huifu, Song and Xie Xinyuan were used in the middle of the bridge and the back of the bridge respectively. At that time, Jia Lian, who was selected for admission, was not printed on it. Now record them as follows.
Was elected as the first Jia Lian is:
Plum is spiritual, and the fairy whip stone is meritorious;
Magpies don't need a bridge when crossing a natural moat.
Another pair was selected but not accepted:
Plum water shelf Changhong, no ancestor dragon whip stone;
Rivers and mountains remain the same. Look at Sima Tiqiao.
These two pairs of bridges are all eleven characters, and the word "Meijiang Bridge" is embedded in them. They are compact before and after, echoing from beginning to end, written in one go, magnificent and neat, which is a masterpiece.