Floating Bridge in China
1 min readFloating bridge is a kind of bridge that floats on the water. It usually uses boats or pontoons as its piers because it was impossible to build piers in great rivers in ancient times.
Boats were linked together to form a floating bridge in order to cross the river. The earliest historical record on the floating bridge is shown in the Book of Songs . In the 12th century B.C., King Wen of the Zhou Dynasty ordered a bridge to be built on the Wei River .
A great number of floating bridges were built in ancient times according to historical records, nine over the Yangtze River and five over the Yellow River. Based upon historical research, the Pujin Floating Bridge grew out of a temporary floating bridge which was built in the first year of Zhaogong’s reign of the Lu State in the Spring-Autumn Period.
The Pujin Floating Bridge was permanently constructed in the 50th year of the reign of King Zhaoxiang of the Qin State. Boats were linked together by bamboo cables until the 12th year of Kaiyuan’s reign of the Tang Dynasty. The bamboo cables were replaced by iron chains.
