Thang Long: The bridge of the Vietnam-Soviet friendship

11 years of construction

Constructed on November 26, 1974 and inaugurated on May 9, 1985, Thang Long is one of the bridges with the longest construction time in Vietnam. The process underwent through ups and downs with two phases. In the first one, the bridge was designed and constructed by Chinese engineers. However, it was paused in 1978 when the work finished only 20% as the aid was stopped. In fact, there remained a lot of work.

In June 1979, fortunately, with the help of friends from the Soviet Union, the project of Thang Long Bridge was restarted. It was based on the Vietnam-Soviet Intergovernmental Agreement signed before, on November 3, 1978, which the Soviet Union aided Vietnam to complete the project. Under the agreement, the Soviet Union provided Vietnam necessary materials and experts.

With their support, in 1985, Thang Long bridge was officially completed and put into operation. Since then, this bridge has become a lasting symbol of the Vietnam-Soviet friendship. It remains some symbols of the friendship on the two ends of the bridge, although the Soviet Union was collapsed 30 years ago. That is why the bridge also has another name known as Huu Nghi (Friendship).

Mr. Hoang Minh Chuc (in the middle) together with Soviet experts carried out the project of building Thang Long bridge/ Documentary photo

Sharing good and bad

Participating in the construction of Thang Long Bridge, Mr. Hoang Minh Chuc, the former Vice Chairman of the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor, expressed his impression of the Vietnamese cadres and workers together built the largest bridge in Vietnam and Southeast Asia for the first time.

Mr. Chuc, who used to be the General Director of the Union of Factories of Thang Long Bridge Construction which was assigned to implement the project, said one of the most difficult parts of the project was site clearance.

There were more than 190 hectares of land in Dong Anh and Tu Liem districts needed to be cleared. In addition, there were nearly 50km of railways, 20km of roads and more than 10,000m2 of housing for workers required to be complete before the restart of the project.

In addition, many officials and workers of the union had to live and work under the ground of tens of meters with the lack of infrastructure in the icy winter as well as in the burning summer. However, they overcame all those difficulties in order to fulfill the goal of completing the project and putting the bridge into operation.

The present-day Thang Long Bridge/ Photo: Pham Hung

Along with the efforts of Vietnamese cadres and workers, the help of Soviet was very important. ¨At the most difficult stage of the project, we received the vital support from our Soviet friends,¨ affirmed Mr. Chuc.

In his memory, one of the most beautiful memories of Thang Long Bridge´s construction was when he and the workers and foreign friends gathered in the Vietnamese traditional meal of the New Year Festival. “Friends of the Soviet Union spent time with us and our family. At that time, there was no distance neither boundaries of the friends in the two countries of thousands of kilometers,” he recalled.

Thang Long Bridge has two floors used for both railway and cars. In which the part for automobile is on the second floor, which the road is 16.5m wide, includes four lanes and two two-metre-wide corridors for pedestrians. In the third time of the restoration in 2020, it spent 270 billion VND ($1.16 million) with the expectation of bringing it a new look and at the same time serving better the transportation inside the city and to neighboring localities.