Nanpu Bridge - Wonder of Shanghai

The Nanpu bridge is the world’s  fourth longest cable stayed bridge. This is also the first girder bridge of Shanghai with a structural composition of steel and concrete. The Nanpu Bridge across Huangpu river is one of the main bridges in Shanghai, China, and the first cable stayed bridge with a span of over 400 meter in the country. 

The main bridge is 846 meters long with a main span length of 423 meter. Two “H”-shape reinforced concrete towers, each of 150m high, are set up on both banks, with 22 pairs of steel cables being arranged in fan pattern and to support main girders.

One of the attractive characteristics of the bridge is the circular design that is implemented in order to reduce the gradient of the approach to the bridge while keeping land use at minimal. When viewed across the entire span, the Nanpu Bridge, with a total length of 8,346 meter, looks like a dragon lying across the Huangpu River, with its head and tail in a spiral shape linking the old city area of Puxi with Pudong Developing Zone.

The famous Nanpu bridge was designed by the collective approach of Shanghai Urban Construction 

Design Institute, Shanghai Municipal Engineering Design Institute and Shanghai Urban Construction College. The Nanpu bridge is also called as the sister bridge of the Yangpu bridge, which is also one of the main bridges in Shanghai.

The construction methodology implemented in the bridge is known as the composite beam structure. The bridge crosses the Huangpu river. The bridge is divided into six vehicle lanes with sidewalks of two meters wide, on both sides along the bridge.

Before the year 1991, people used to communicate between Puxi and Pudong with the help of the ferry service. After the construction of the bridge completed in the year 1991, it connected Puxi to Pudong.After the bridge opened to the public, 14,000 to 17,000 vehicles started piling on the bridge each day, which increased to 120,000 vehicles per day as recorded in the year 2006.