The Yangtze River Bridge, Changjiang Daqiao, is a technical masterpiece that the Chinese had to accomplish without foreign assistance, as Soviet advisors left the country in 1960 and Western experts deemed the project technically infeasible. Construction of the double-decked, two-lane railway and highway bridge took place from 1960 to 1968. It spans the Yangtze River with a width of nearly 20 meters and stretches almost 7 kilometers including approach ramps. The bridge is supported by nine pillars, each 80 meters high, in a river that reaches depths of 20 meters at this location.
