Egongyan Bridge

Egongyan Bridge
鹅公岩大桥
Chongqing, Chongqing, China
295 feet high / 90 meters high
1,969 foot span / 600 meter span
2000

Egongyan was the first major suspension bridge to cross the Yangtze River in the greater Chongqing City region in 2000. Since then there have been many other long span crossings including the giant Caiyuanba and Chaotianmen arches, the record breaking beam span Shibanpo Bridge as well as the parallel Egongyan metro line suspension bridge that opened in 2016. The new monorail-only suspension bridge may look the same as the 2000 bridge with similar towers and a thin box steel deck but the engineering is completely different with the 2015 crossing using a self anchored design that eliminated the need for huge concrete anchors that are common on most large suspension bridges.

Egongyan Bridge crosses the upper end of the giant 3 Gorges reservoir and is only 83 meters high if the reservoir is at full pool level of 175 meters above sea level. But if the reservoir is down several meters, the full height of the tall tower piers can be seen along with the natural shoreline of the Yangtze River.