Lugou Bridge（卢沟桥）

Lugou Bridge is built over the Yongding River in Fengtai District, about 15km southwest of Beijing. As the Yongding River is called Lugou River in the old days, the bridge got its name. It is the oldest stone arch bridge at present in Beijing. The body of the bridge is of solid structure and exquisite shape, showing an extremely high technology and artistic level in bridge engineering. It is a full reflection of the wisdom of the ancient Han working people and the brilliant achievements in bridge construction.
The bridge has 11 continuous arches, ranging from 12.35m to 13.42m in span. The size of arch caves gradually increase from two banks to the center. The center of the bridge body is slightly protruding for 93.5cm, and the slope is gentle. The bridge totally stretches 266.5m, which is the sum of 213.15m of the bridge on the surface of the river and the length of approach bridges on two ends. The bridge body is 9.3m wide in total, and the bridge deck is 7.5m wide. On both sides of the bridge, the wild-goose-wing-shaped deck is flared, and the entrance is 32m wide. There are stone columns on both sides of the deck, 140 balusters on the north side and 141 ones on the south side. The spacing of the 1.4m-high balusters ranges from 1.8m to 2m. Between the balusters are the embedded stone balustrades with a height of about 0.85m.
The entire bridge is of stone structure, and the key parts are connected with iron ingots and tenons. It is the longest ancient stone bridge in North China. The Travels of Marco Polo described it as a giant but elegant stone bridge, so it was later called "Marco Polo Bridge" by foreigners. On July 7, 1937, the Japanese imperialists launched a full-scale war of aggression against China at this place.
In response, the Chinese garrison army in the Wanping Fortress rose up to resist them. And this is so-called "Lugouqiao Incident" (also known as the "July 7 Incident") in the history. The Chinese anti-Japanese army triggered the first shot of the full-scale war at the Lugou Bridge.