Saturday's incident was not the first time the Wan'an bridge was threatened by fires. "It was a lost example to prove the Chinese wisdoms on wooden architecture like the one you see from art piece 'Along the River During the Qingming Festival'," Xu remarked.
"Bridges are often made of stones, the wooden arch bridge condenses a lot of Chinese ancient wisdoms, techniques and also the economic thinking of choosing the wood material." It holds significant cultural value as it shows ancient Chinese mastered wisdom and ingenuities on wooden architecture designs, especially when the wooden arch bridge prototype in a length like such was extremely difficult to manifest. "I speculate it was likely to be caused by man-made conducts and not a natural disaster, the spontaneous combustion of bridge on water is rare." Xu Yitao, an ancient architecture expert of Peking University, told the Global Times on Sunday.Īlthough the open fires of the bridge had been putted out in around 10 hours, the 900-year-old wood bridge's body has been burnt to collapse during the first 20 minutes of fire, as Xu noted, its unique wooden structure made it even more susceptible to damage by the fire.Īlso known as the Bridge of Universal Peace, the Wan'an bridge was China's longest wood arch bridge ranging 98.2 metres. The Criminal Investigation Department of the Pingnan County Public Security Bureau has stepped in for the case's further inquiry. The cause of the fire is still under investigation.
The burning Wan'an Bridge (Photo/China News Service via Sina Weibo)Ĭhina's 900-year-old wood arch bridge known as the Wan'an bridge built in the Song Dynasty (960-1127) in Pingnan county, East China's Fujian Province, has been marred by fire on Saturday night, leading to the collapse of the longest wood arch bridge in China.
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