This Day, That Year

Item from July 27, 1996, in China Daily: After 28 years of operation, the Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge in Jiangsu province is getting its first thorough overhaul this month.

The restoration is scheduled to be completed by the end of August.

The 6,772-meter double-decker bridge over the Yangtze River, opened to the public in 1969 after nine years of construction.

The Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge in Jiangsu province has been undergoing fresh repairs since October. It is expected to reopen by the end of next year.

In the past five decades, the bridge has been repaired 12 times.

It is one of the biggest attractions in Nanjing. Leaders of more than 100 countries have visited the bridge.

As China's first domestically designed and constructed road and rail truss bridge, it was once listed in The Guinness Book of World Records as the longest bridge with the dual function of highway and railway.

In 2014, it was listed as one of the Immovable Cultural Relics under State protection designated by the State Council, China's Cabinet.

The bridge carries about 100,000 vehicles every day, greatly surpassing its designed capacity, according to the Nanjing Public Project Construction Center.

Since its construction, 162 other bridges have been built over the Yangtze River, making the river basin one of the most prosperous economic belts in the country.