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Hotline: +84.984819645
See how Vietnam holiday was going on
It is no double that Long Bien bridge is one of the favourite stops for tourists on Hanoi holiday. Many travelers want to explore the bridge on their own when they have free time on their travel Hanoi. They may search on internet to learn about the bridge before visiting it. Unluckily, they will get wrong information on the internet if they do not come to our website(at this time we public this article). There are many public news and Hanoi travel guides mentioning that Long Bien bridge was designed by the world famous designer, Gustave Eiffel who is the farther of the Eiffel tower in Paris. Those publications include
It is Paul Doumer, the French general governer of Indochina who introduced the idea of building a new traffic system of railways, roads and seaports in Indochina to strengthen their governance and exploit the 3 countries: Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam. Long Bien was in the package to solve the increasing traffic from Hanoi city centre to Haiphong seaport and the border with China.
However, There were many oppositions to the idea of Long Bien bridge. The oppositors like the colonists, the French goverment officals, business men, the French public... said building a bridge over the Red River is like putting a ladder to the heaven and his idea was considered to be crazy at that time. Taking no care of what was mentioned, Paul Doumer went on with his decision to build the bridge spaning the large Red River. On September 1889, a ceremony was held to start the construction by Dayde & Pille company with total investment of 5.900.000 Francs. The Dayde & Pille company was founded on Dec 31st 1885 in Creteil, France.
On Feb 3rd 1902, Long Bien bridge was completed after 3years and 9months with 3000 Vietnamese workers and 40 French supervisors and engineers. The budget for the bridge went upto 6.200.000 Francs and took a big amout of materials such as over 6000 tons of metal and 30.000 tons of stone. The bridge was initially open to only trains, walkers and small liverstock. However, in April 1924 motor vehicles were allowed to go through.
Visiting the bridge from the side of Hanoi downtown, you can see a side on the end of the bridge as follows: "1899 - 1902 - Dayde & Pille - Paris". You may say that Gustave Eiffel designed the bridge for Dayde & Pille. I am sure that you can find the drawings reserved in the Vietnamese National Archives Centres in Hanoi were all signed Dayde & Pille. One more accurate provement published on Vietnam Heritage Public on May 2012 was the reply of Mr. Sylvain Yeatman-Eiffel, honorary president of the Association of the descendants of Gustave Eiffel to Vietnam Heritage question as to whether Mr. Gustave Eiffel was the designer of Long Bien bridge spanning the Red River in Hanoi. He says Mr. Gustave Eiffel was not.
(The Source - Vietnam Heritage)
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