Lounge bridge is an arch bridge, with beams and wood interspersed under different pressures and supported on rocks on both sides of the river. The base is a "splayed structure" made up of dozens of thick logs. Do not need nails and riveting, completely rely on their own strength, friction, diameter, angle, horizontal distance. It has a simple structure, but it is unusually strong. It is an ancient and unique bridge type of "crossing the river, building a corridor on the bridge, protecting the bridge on the corridor, and integrating the bridge with the corridor". Because it looks like a rainbow, it is also called Hongqiao and Hongliang Wooden Covered Bridge. Because there are bridge houses on the bridge, it is commonly known as "CuO Bridge". Professor Tang Huancheng, a bridge expert, named it a through wooden arch bridge according to its arch structure characteristics in the history of China Science Bridge. Due to the use of short structural materials, it has formed a long span, which is considered as a unique structure in China in the history of bridges in the world. Covered bridges with wooden arch structure were once popular in the Northern Song Dynasty. They are living fossils of wooden bridges in China, and they are the ones with the highest technical content among traditional wooden bridges in China. At the same time, they have high traditional aesthetic value. The "Hongqiao" with wooden arch structure was popular in the Central Plains during the Northern Song Dynasty. Hongqiao across the Bianshui River in the famous painting Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival in the Northern Song Dynasty is a typical representative of the covered bridge. After the demise of the Northern Song Dynasty, it was annihilated by historical dust together with the dry and silted Bianhe River, but it was rediscovered in the mountainous areas of Fujian and Zhejiang more than 900 years later. Together with Anji Bridge in Zhao County, Hebei Province, Wan 'an Bridge in Quanzhou and Guangji Bridge in Haiyang, Chaozhou, it is called the four ancient bridges in China. The History of Science and Technology in China claims that the covered bridge is unique in China in the history of bridges in the world, and the covered bridge in Fujian is rated as "the middle bridge in Fujian is the best in the world".
Covered bridges in China are concentrated at the junction of Fujian and Zhejiang, mainly distributed in Shouning and Pingnan in Fujian and Taishun, Qingyuan and Jingning in Zhejiang. At present, there are more than 100 covered bridges preserved in China and 54 in Ningde, Fujian. Among them, there are 19 well-preserved and most distinctive covered bridges in Shouning County, which can be called "the best in China". Pingnan is a county with many covered bridges in China, with 6 1 covered bridges, including 5 covered bridges (ancient covered bridges 13). Among these covered bridges, three covered bridges have been recorded in the Technical History of Ancient Bridges in China edited by Mao Yisheng. Wan 'an Bridge, Qiancheng Bridge and Baixiang Bridge are national key cultural relics protection units, and Guangfu Bridge and Guangli Bridge are cultural relics protection units in Fujian Province. Wan 'an Bridge is the longest existing covered bridge in China with a length of 98.2 meters. Longjing Bridge is also called the first dangerous bridge in the southeast of Mao Yisheng. In June 2008, the traditional construction techniques of wooden arch bridges in Shouning and Pingnan of Fujian were successfully selected into the second batch of national intangible cultural heritage lists.
The chronological order of the covered bridges in Shouning is the most complete in China, from Qingganlong, Jiaqing, Daoguang, Tongzhi and Guangxu to the Republic of China, and even after liberation, it is extremely rare in China.
Pingnan covered bridge was first built in Song Dynasty, and the rest were built in Yuan Dynasty, Ming Dynasty and Qing Dynasty. The existing covered bridges have been rebuilt or rebuilt many times before they can be preserved to this day. According to the records of old county annals, relevant village history and bridge monuments, there were Wan 'an Bridge, Qiancheng Bridge, Longjing Bridge, Baixiang Bridge and Guangli Bridge in Song Dynasty. There is Guangfu Bridge, which was built in Yuan Dynasty. Founded in the Ming dynasty
There are Jinlong Bridge, Jinzao Bridge, Qingyan Bridge, Huifeng Bridge, Xili Bridge, Zhangjiakou Bridge and Yingfeng Bridge in the first generation and the Qing Dynasty.
The wooden arch structure of Pingnan covered bridge is basically the same. All of them use 6 1 round Chinese fir as longitudinal beam, and 10 span chord beam (commonly known as bull's head) to form a splayed bridge arch. Then, four X-shaped scissors forks are composed of eight beams to prevent the bridge arch from swinging left and right, and bars are inserted into the bridge arch to form an arch, and wooden boards are laid horizontally on the bridge deck. The whole bridge only relies on rafters and trusses, with tight connection, stable structure, arch bottom and flat deck. Its construction technology is unique and ingenious, which fully embodies the intelligence and superb skills of ancient bridge craftsmen in China. This unique building, like a bridge and a house, resembles the Bianshui Hongqiao in the Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival written by Zhang Zeduan in Song Dynasty. However, compared with Hongqiao, the bridge arch technology has developed from the tied structure of Hongqiao to the tenon-mortise structure, and the bridge-building technology has been obviously improved, adding exquisite bridge houses. In the middle of the bridge building is a corridor with a width of more than two meters, with fixed long wooden benches on both sides. On the beam of the bridge house, the date of building the bridge, the name of the donor, the person in charge of building the bridge and the person who built the bridge are recorded in words, and some books are written with neat and poetic couplets.
The riverbed in Pingnan is relatively narrow, so most of the covered bridges are single-span and single-span. Only Wan 'an Bridge has five piers and six holes, while Qiancheng Bridge and Sheath Bridge (destroyed) have one pier and two holes. Among them, Qiancheng Bridge, Longjing Bridge and Xiping Bridge are included in the Technical History of Ancient Bridges in China edited by Mao Yisheng, while Qiancheng Bridge, Jinzao Bridge and Zhongyang Bridge (the destroyed Jinzhong Bridge) are included in the Historical Materials of Chinese Bridges edited by Luo Ying.
So, why is the Lounge Bridge the only place in China? This is caused by local geography, culture, climate and ecological environment. Covered bridges are located in mountainous areas, with high mountains and deep ditches and criss-crossing streams. Its geographical location is in temperate zone and subtropical zone, with abundant rainfall, more water flow and inconvenient transportation for people. This kind of bridge is very suitable for the local environment. Most of the local rivers are not wide, but they are deep, so the scale of the bridge is not very large. The material used to build the bridge is Chinese fir, which is native to the mountains and can be seen everywhere; All the pressure of the bridge is borne by both sides, which makes full use of the stability of cliff rocks; The best thing is that this kind of bridge is compressive and not seismic. There has never been an earthquake in this area in history. From this, we have to marvel at the wisdom of the ancients.
According to the research of some experts and scholars, Hongqiao, which was popular in the Northern Song Dynasty, remained in Fujian because of people's drinking habits at that time. Fujian has always been a big tea province in China. Beiyuan Tea, the most famous imperial tea in the history of tea development in China, was produced in Jian 'ou City, Fujian Province today. At the same time, white tea and the special tea set for white tea-rabbit's white lamp is only produced in Fujian. Perhaps it was the tea workers in Fujian who brought the construction skills of Hongqiao back to Fujian in the commercial and cultural exchanges with the capital at that time. The suitable geographical environment made the covered bridge settle down in Fujian, which has been passed down to this day ~