the river's water flow to piers. In the 14th year of the Jiaqing Era in Qing Dynasty, the bridge was elongated to as many as 13 piers, and the covers of the bridge were removed and stone handrails were implanted, so since then it has been an "open" stone arch bridge, instead of a covered one. Many drastic and historic battles happened on the bridge, including the battles of the Taiping Rebellion, the Second Sino-Japanese War, and the Chinese Civil War. Luckily, the main structure of the bridge remained almost intact during and after wars. In the 1950s, some repairs and enhancements of its structure took place, but the main parts of the bridge did not change. Current conditions The bridge is in the key way to Lanxi and Quzhou − two important cities and industrial bases in Western Zhejiang. It goes across the Wu River, and links the North and South districts of urban Jinhua. The road on the bridge is named Bayi South Road (simplified/traditional Chinese: 八一南路, pinyin: Bā Yī Nán Lù, "nan" means south/southern), which is a traffic artery. The bridge was further elongated and broadened in October 1994; the project was finished in December 1995. The current width of the bridge is 24.5 meters and the total length is about 380 meters. References External links The map of the Tongji Bridge Arch bridges in China Bridges in Jinhua Stone bridges in China Yuan dynasty architecture Ming dynasty architecture Qing dynasty architecture