Nanjing Qixiashan Yangtze River Bridge, Suspension bridge in Nanjing, China.
The Nanjing Qixiashan Yangtze River Bridge is a suspension bridge over the Yangtze with a main span of 1418 m, the longest of its kind in China and third longest worldwide. Its two 229 m concrete pylons carry a 38.2 m wide steel box girder with three lanes and a hard shoulder each way. The full crossing, including approach viaducts, measures 28.996 km, of which the bridge proper is 5.448 km.
Construction began with the groundbreaking in early 2008 and the official start ceremony on 29 December 2008; work on the whole line started in 2009, the pylons were finished in 2010 and the main cables were erected in 2011. The deck was joined and the route connected in 2012, and the bridge opened to traffic on 24 December 2012. It was the fourth Yangtze crossing at Nanjing, after the bridges of 1968, 2001 and 2005, and on 20 December 2019 it was renamed Nanjing Qixiashan Yangtze River Bridge.
The bridge's nickname, "China's Golden Gate," comes from its resemblance to the San Francisco landmark. It was renamed on 20 December 2019 after Qixiashan (Mount Qixia), the hill nearby, replacing its earlier name, Fourth Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge.
The deck carries three traffic lanes plus a hard shoulder in each direction, with a 2.1 m maintenance walkway outside the main cables and hangers. There are no pedestrian or cyclist paths, so crossing on foot or by bike is not possible; the bridge is part of the expressway network linking the Nanjing Ring Expressway with the Nanjing–Nantong and Shanghai–Nanjing expressways.
The construction was a major investment project that greatly improved transportation capacity in the region. It connects not only the two riverbanks physically but also created economic opportunities between districts that were previously harder to reach from each other.
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