Overseas Vietnamese woman with a heavy heart for the bridge of memories

Living in France, architect Nguyen Nga still has her heart set on Hanoi , with the concern of how to help Long Bien bridge regain its true glory...

Architect Nguyen Nga on Long Bien bridge. (Photo: NVCC)

The story begins in 1989, when Ms. Nguyen Nga returned to visit Hanoi, after 35 years of living and studying urban planning architecture in Paris, France. While cycling on Long Bien Bridge, a train passed by, the whole bridge suddenly shook like a dragon waking up, causing many emotions to surge in her about an old bridge carrying the memories and injuries of "a time of bombs and bullets, a time of peace ". According to Architect Nguyen Nga, Long Bien Bridge is as long as Champs Elysee Avenue, built more than 10 years after the Eiffel Tower in France (in 1889) and was the second largest bridge in the world at that time. Long Bien Bridge brought Hanoi to a new turning point because it changed traffic from river to road, contributing to creating the urban appearance of the civilized capital as it is today...

The never ending fate

In 2007, after working on a number of projects funded by the France-Vietnam protocol, architect Nguyen Nga decided to open the Maison des Arts at 31A Van Mieu, Hanoi. At that time, a leader of the French Economic Development Agency (AFD) came to see her and informed her that France had offered to support Vietnam with 60 million Euros of ODA (official development assistance) to renovate Long Bien Bridge, but had not received a response for nearly six years. When she accepted the invitation, Nga realized that in 2006, a decision had been made to dismantle Long Bien Bridge. Struggling to find a way to preserve the bridge, she came up with the idea of calling on the world to participate by organizing a festival to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Long Bien Bridge and received support from the Hanoi People's Committee. To organize the festival, Nga called on artists to support 100 paintings of Long Bien Bridge, 1,000 photos and more than 20 different art forms. The festival took place over two days with tens of thousands of attendees and made a splash in 2010, the 1000th anniversary of Thang Long - Hanoi. In fact, since 2008, Architect Nguyen Nga has drafted the Project to preserve, renovate and develop Long Bien Bridge and sent it to AFD and was highly appreciated. After many ups and downs, three years ago, her project was presented by Ambassador Nguyen Phu Binh - Chairman of the Association for Liaison with Overseas Vietnamese, to former Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc. The Government Office issued an official dispatch allowing her to bring the Project to the exhibition at the Venice Biennale (Italy) to promote the country and people of Vietnam through the symbol of Long Bien Bridge, agreeing to socialize the project and creating all conditions to receive investment. In 2021, the pre-feasibility study of the Project to preserve, renovate and develop Long Bien Bridge was completed with the Transport Investment and Construction Consulting Joint Stock Company under the Ministry of Transport. The project was presented to the newly appointed French Ambassador to Vietnam, Nicolas Warnery. During a reception by Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh, Mr. Nicolas Warnery expressed his intention to promote support for Vietnam to restore Long Bien Bridge. During his subsequent visit to France, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh officially raised the issue of Vietnam's hope that France would help preserve and renovate the bridge. Architect Nguyen Nga said that in 2022, during the official visit of the President of the French Senate, National Assembly Chairman Vuong Dinh Hue also mentioned the Long Bien Bridge project - a symbol of Vietnam - France relations, and said that Hanoi really wanted to renovate this bridge into a pedestrian bridge, a cultural space and asked the French side to study, cooperate and support the implementation of this idea. The President of the French Senate emphasized that the French side has advocated cooperation with Vietnam to restore this heritage for a long time and needs to be concretized for implementation.

Design image of Long Bien bridge project. (Photo: NVCC)

Finding new value for historic bridge

From 2007 to present, Architect Nguyen Nga has spent 16 years pursuing the project of preserving, renovating and developing Long Bien bridge.

Choosing to stay in Vietnam to "save" the bridge, she put aside her own happiness and broke up with her French husband, Daniel Roussel - director of the film The Battle Between Tigers and Elephants (about General Vo Nguyen Giap and the Dien Bien Phu victory).

She shared: “Long Bien Bridge was once one of the two largest steel bridges in the world in the early 20th century. It was started by the French in 1899 and put into use in 1902. Hanoians can be proud that Long Bien Bridge was once on par with famous symbolic structures in the world such as the Eiffel Tower in Paris or the Statue of Liberty in New York.

As soon as the bridge regains its glory, a green, smart, modern, creative Hanoi will take off and affirm its importance to the world.”

This project studies the conversion of Long Bien Bridge's traffic function to cultural, historical, artistic and tourism functions.

Ms. Nguyen Nga believes that the project will bring new values to Long Bien Bridge with higher socio-economic efficiency. If the bridge is developed into a system of memory museums and contemporary art museums located on the river, it will be a unique museum in the world.

She said that Long Bien Bridge also has an 896-meter-long approach bridge on 131 arches through the Old Quarter and Dong Xuan Market. When its railway traffic function is liberated, this approach bridge will be designed into an elevated park for the city.

The project also builds a tram line with tinkling sounds reminiscent of the tram lines of the past and connects the tourist routes of the ancient town of Thang Long Imperial Citadel, Uncle Ho's Mausoleum with Long Bien Bridge.

In addition, the tourist canoe route on the Red River will clear the dead river branch, improve the green and clean environment, and provide tourism services for visitors from all over.

In phase one, the project will renovate the bridge access and the reception hall, reinforce and renovate the bridge while there is still rail traffic; expand the sidewalk system and road surface on both sides of the old French girder spans; build a gazebo area on both sides of the bridge, a central area to provide a workplace for the Project Management Board and a resting place for tourists; build a tram system connecting historical sites on old streets, the old town and the city center with Long Bien Bridge.

Phase two is the process of preserving, restoring and renovating the bridge after removing the railway traffic to the new bridge: restoring all the lost bridge spans to their original shape and raising them to 3.2 m; converting the functions of these spans into a memory museum system, contemporary art museum, gallery, restaurant, cafe.

Ms. Nguyen Nga also said that the project is proposed to be invested in under the PPP model, in which in addition to the investor's own capital, there is also preferential loans from the French government. The project, after completion, can attract about 12-15 million tourists and bring in tens of millions of USD in revenue each year.

Architect Nguyen Nga also plans to launch the book “Long Bien Bridge – the legendary bridge” in November this year. The book, edited by her and published by the Fine Arts Publishing House, includes many research articles by domestic and foreign experts along with many vivid images and documents about Long Bien Bridge from the past to the present.

Architect Nguyen Nga affirmed that Long Bien Bridge will be invested in applying the most advanced technologies to become a symbol of the heroic capital Hanoi, a city for peace and a creative city. She sadly said: “So the project has been going slowly but now it has completed 90%. It is time for the bridge to become a museum of 20th century memories. It is time for us to find new values for Long Bien Bridge that are greater than its inherent value, that is, a world-famous bridge, containing within itself many heroic memories of the nation”.

Baoquocte.vn