Yangpu Bridge

Since 1911, ferries connected the two banks of the Huangpu River. By the 1980s there were 22 passenger ferry routes and 5 vehicle ferries, transporting over 1 million passengers and over 22,000 motor vehicles daily, making it possibly the busiest ferry in the world, despite the opening of the Dapu Road Tunnel in 1971, followed by the Yan'an East Road Tunnel in 1988. While building another tunnel was considered the most suitable option, mayor Zhu Rongji pushed for construction of a bridge, which could also serve as a landmark for the city. == Design ==

The bridge was designed by the Shanghai Municipal Engineering Design Institute, Shanghai Urban Construction College, and Shanghai Urban Construction Design Institute, with assistance from Holger S. Svensson and Tung-Yen Lin under chief designer . It was built by the Shanghai Huangpujiang Bridge Engineering Construction company. It is a double-tower and double-cable-stayed bridge, with the bridge proper (the part that spans the river) 1172 m long. Its 30.35 m width carries six lanes of traffic, three for each direction. Its two pylons reach 223 m in height. The highest ship clearance is 48 m, a necessity due to the heavy river traffic. From its completion until the completion of the Pont de Normandie, it was the world's longest cable-stayed bridge. The two main abutments support high, upside-down Y-shaped towers (or pylons) from which the supporting cables are strung. There are two two-meter-wide sightseeing sidewalks on both sides of the bridge. The bridge was originally unpainted; it was coated with red paint for the millennium. The name Yangpu Bridge (杨浦大桥) inscribed on each pylon was originally hand-written by Deng Xiaoping. == Traffic statistics ==

As of 2006, it carries more than 100,000 vehicles per day. == External links ==