and restored at a local Shipyard, the Zhongshan has been moved to a purpose-built museum in Wuhan's suburban Jiangxia District, which opened on September 26, 2011.
Completion and opening-to-traffic of the First Yangtze River Bridge
The project of building the Wuhan Yangtze River Bridge, also known as the First Yangtze River Bridge, was regarded as one of the key projects during the period of the first five-year plan. The Engineering Bureau of the First Yangtze River Bridge, set up by the Ministry of Railway in April 1953, was responsible for the design and construction of the bridge. The document “Resolutions on Building the First Yangtze River Bridge” was passed in the 203rd conference of State Council on January 15, 1954. The technical conference on the routes of the bridge, was held in Hankou on January 15, 1955, determined that the route from Tortoise Hill to Snake Hill was the best choice. On October 25, the bridge proper was under construction. The same day in 1957 the whole project was completed and an opening-to-traffic ceremony was held on October 15. The whole bridge was 1,670 m (5,479.00 ft) long, of which the superstratum was a highway with a width of 22.5 m (73.82 ft) and the substratum was a double-line railway with a width of 18 m (59.06 ft). The bridge proper was 1,156 m (3,792.65 ft) long with two pairs of eight piers and nine arches with a space of 128 m (419.95 ft) between each arch. Thanks to the First Yangtze River Bridge, Beijing-Wuhan and Guangdong-Wuhan railways were available and any place could be reached from Wuchang, Hankou to Hanyang. Thus Wuhan was a thoroughfare to nine provinces not only in reality but in name as well
