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Heritage Committee, the bridge not
only serves as a piece of transport infra-
structure, but it is also a cultural herit-
age site that should be treated with
care. He believes any alterations, such
as expanding its size or height, chang-
ing the original structure, or altering
its colour, will blight the beauty of the
bridge and cause it to lose its originality
and also its historical value.
Architect Tran Viet Thang of the Ha-
noi Architectural Planning Department
disagrees says the development of Ha-
noi, with the expansion of urban areas
and the problem of traffic congestion,
definitely requires changes. He thinks
there are ways to modernise a herit-
age site by adding new elements to it
without ruining its original aesthetics,
and he points to the fact that some
countries have managed to do this with
their iconic sites.
However, he advises that this work
has to be subtle and, given Vietnam’s
limited preservation capabilities, it is
therefore best to keep the bridge as it
is now.
Associate Professor Nguyen Hong
Thuc of the Vietnam Union for Tech-
nologies Scientific Association, says
Long Bien Bridge has survived for dec-
ades and therefore it needs to be rec-
ognised for its value and preserved for
future generations.
“The issue here is how to harmo-
nise the preservation of the original
bridge with its development,” he says.
Thuc argues that competent bodies
should make public their proposals to
develop Long Bien Bridge and collect
opinion from the public on this issue.
Architect Dao Ngoc Nghiem, for-
mer head architect of Hanoi, cannot ac-
cept a Hanoi without Long Bien Bridge:
“Long Bien is part of our heritage, so we
must preserve it,” he says.
Associate Professor Dang Van Bai,
deputy chairman of the Vietnam Cul-
tural Heritage Association believes that
Long Bien Bridge is in the heart of every
Vietnamese person: “Changing it will not
be accepted by the public. In the future
there will be many other bridges which
can carry traffic instead of Long Bien.”
At a meeting held recently by the Vi-
etnam Urban Planning and Development
Association, Nguyen Nga, an architect
who lived and worked in Paris for many
years, proposed turning Long Bien Bridge
into an outdoor museum. She said that
Long Bien Bridge deserves to be recog-
nised as a living museum and a symbol
of the country’s wartime heroism.
Nga suggests the original bridge
could be reinvented as the world’s long-
est contemporary art museum as there
are already plans for a new bridge to
be built in the future to serve national
railway links.
In order to realise the idea, the bridge
must be raised two metres to permit the
navigation of large vessels and be en-
larged to permit long term development.
At the end of Long Bien Bridge,
there are ambitious proposals to con-
struct a Museum of Contemporary Art,
which would rise out of a lotus. The
museum will present works of contem-
porary art, design, and technology, and
feature a library, auditorium, restaurant
and cafe.
Nga also proposed that Long Bien
Bridge’s 131 arches be renovated with
hanging gardens in the manner of the
Coulee Verte Arts Viaduct in Paris, or
the High Line in New York City.
The reopening of the 131 arches
which are currently walled-in could
provide a whole city’s-worth of galler-
ies for artisans and artists. The arches
could house galleries, studios and
workshops, while twenty arches could
be reserved for cafes, tea houses, and
restaurants.
far?
Long Bien Bridge in the French Colonial period (above) and photographed
from the same spot today
SOCIETY AT LARGE