Long Bien bridge spanning the Red River in Hanoi

Paris (VNA) – The Long Bien bridge spanning the Red River in Hanoi city, for the
first time in its century-long history, will be honoured at a festival to
celebrate the 55th anniversary of the capital city’s liberation (Oct. 10).

The festival, initiated by an overseas Vietnamese in France , architect Nguyen
Nga, was announced at an exhibition on the bridge that opened at the Vietnam
Cultural Centre in Paris on June 22.

Addressing the ceremony, Nga, who is director of Maison des Arts (House of Arts),
said the festival aims to reflect the close attachment Hanoians have had to the
bridge over the past century.

She also said the initiative is supported by the Vietnamese Foreign Ministry, the
Hanoi People’s Committee, and especially by many Hanoians, who are eager to
contribute materials and effort to the project. Her husband, French director
Daniel Roussel, who is known for his films about Vietnam , will also give a
helping hand with a film about the Long Bien bridge.

Inaugurated in 1903, the Long Bien bridge, the work of the famous French architect
Gustave Eiffel, was one of the world’s four longest bridges in early 20th
century.

The bridge serves as a link between past and present, and enduring witness to
Hanoi’s ups and downs during French colonialism, two resistance wars, and on
through the country’s national construction and reform.

It has become a familiar image for generations of Hanoians and a historical and
cultural symbol of the capital city.-Enditem