Longteng Bridge 2.83

The Longteng Bridge, officially known as the Yutengping Bridge, is a former bridge in Longteng Village, Sanyi Township, Miaoli County, Taiwan.HistoryThe bridge was built in 1906 during Japanese rule, and was named. It was designed by the American civil engineers Theodore Cooper and C.C. Schneider for the colonial government. Both the bridge and nearby village (modern-day Longteng) were named after a local plant Millettia pachycarpa believed to be poisonous to fish; legends believed that a malevolent carp in a nearby lake was responsible for misfortune, and residents planted the shrub to counter the carp. The original design consists of a central steel truss flanked by multiple brick masonry arch approaches.The April 1935 Shinchiku-Taichū earthquake and subsequent aftershocks in July damaged the bridge beyond repair. Several masonry arches were cracked and the north and south ends of the truss became misaligned. A new iron bridge was built in 1938, 80 meters to the west of Longteng Bridge, and the central truss was dismantled once the new bridge opened. Longteng of the bridge's common name is from the name of Longteng Village and gained use after the Japanese handover of Taiwan.The 1999 921 earthquake caused one of the remaining piers to collapse and as a result, the county government decided to rededicate the bridge's remains as a monument to the two deadliest earthquakes in Taiwan's history. It was placed on the list of Taiwan's Cultural Heritage Assets (Historical Site #KA09602001112) on 25 November 2003.