Hanoi (VNA) - A collection of old documentsrelated to Hanoi’s iconic Long Bien Bridge has been unveiled to the public forthe first time.

More than 100 documents, including sketches and images of the bridge that weretaken from 1898 to 1975, are on display at an on-going exhibition at the NationalArchives Centre 1 in Hanoi.

Entitled Cau Long Bien Nhan Chung Lich Su (LongBien Bridge – The Eyewitness of History), the exhibition, has been co-organisedby the National Archives Centre 1 and the École française d'Extrême-Orient(EFEO or the French School of Asian Studies) to celebrate the 120thanniversary of the iconic bridge.

The documents and images show details how the bridge was built, expanded andrenovated. The life of people living in a Red River mudflats under the bridgealso were depicted in several images.

Among the documents and images are on display, some are on loan from the FrenchOverseas National Archives (ANOM).

The objects include a construction bidding registration approved by the FrenchGovernor-General of Indochina, Paul Doumer. The drawings of the bridge’s façadeand longitudinal section by the French contractor Daydé & Pillé Company arealso on display.

Visitors can enjoy the exhibition which has been set up following three majorcontents: The Bridge Was Built from a Crazy Idea, By the Long Bien Bridge, andMemory of the Long Bien Bridge.

Alongside the old documents and images, the exhibition was also enriched byphotographs that were taken by Vietnamese and foreign photographers.

To create a lively and diversified displaying space, the organisers also set upa small model of the Long Bien Bridge as the background for anyone who areinterested in photography. Alongside, junior visitors can present their artability by drawing paintings at a creative corner.

Visiting the exhibition, French Ambassador to Vietnam Nicolas Warnery said thatthe landmark bridge is a construction that symbols for the relationship of thetwo countries.

“It also conveys the common memories of Vietnam-France history,” he said.“Therefore, the organisation of this exhibition is to present comprehensivelyto the public the image of Long Bien Bridge throughout the length of history.”

On September 13, 1889, Governor-General Doumer held a ground-breakingceremony for a bridge crossing the Hong (Red) River. The bridge was designed inthe style of the keys that the contractor Daydé & Pillé Company applied forthe first time to Tolbiac Bridge in Paris. It has a length of 1,862m,consisting of 19 steel beams and a stone path. There is a single railroad trackfor trains in the middle and both sides have pathways for motorised vehiclesand pedestrians.

The construction of the first steel bridge in Vietnam was the fourth-largestand the second-longest of its kind in the world at the time, after the BrooklynBridge in the US.

The bridge was officially inaugurated on February 28, 1902, after nearly threeyears and nine months of construction, and was named after Paul Doumer, theFrench Governor-General of Indochina. It was renamed Long Bien following Vietnamgained independence in 1945.  The construction of the first steel bridge in Vietnam took the efforts of thousands of Vietnamese workers under the guidance of French experts. In addition to tonnes of limestone transported from Thua Thien-Hue, 30,000 cubic metres of stone and ironwood blocks were brought from Thanh Hoa and tonnes of cement from Hai Phong. Vietnamese workers also created tens of thousands of rivets needed for the bridge and dived deep into the river to construct its abutment, 30m below the water surface. The exhibition Long Bien Bridge – TheEyewitness of History opens until mid-June of 2023./.