Long Bien Bridge, the iron bridge Hanoi kept

Long Bien Bridge is the iron bridge over the Red River that Hanoi rebuilt instead of replacing. It still carries trains down the middle and motorbikes along the sides, and a walk across it at the end of the day is one of the cheapest good hours in the city.

What is Long Bien Bridge?

Long Bien Bridge is a steel cantilever bridge over the Red River, built by the French colonial administration between 1899 and 1902. It opened as the Paul Doumer Bridge, after the Governor-General of Indochina. At the time it was one of the longest bridges in Asia, at well over a kilometre and a half.

The bridge was built for the railway, which linked Hanoi with the port of Hai Phong and the lines north to China. The same single track still runs down its centre, and the bridge has never carried cars.

Long Bien also marks a turning point in the city's history. In October 1954 the last French troops left Hanoi across it, in the same week that the Viet Minh entered the city.

What happened to the bridge in the war?

American aircraft bombed Long Bien repeatedly between 1967 and 1972. It was the main link between Hanoi and the port, and it carried most of the supplies moving into the city from the north. Spans were knocked into the river and patched back into place many times.

The repairs are still visible. The bridge does not match itself along its length, and some sections have a different profile from the originals. Newer road bridges now take the traffic, and Long Bien was kept rather than demolished, largely for what it represents.

How do you walk across Long Bien Bridge?

Walking across Long Bien means using the narrow pedestrian walkways along both outer edges, beside the motorbike lanes. The crossing takes about half an hour at an easy pace, and stopping in the middle to watch the river is the point.

Watch your feet. The walkway is made of concrete plates and some are cracked, loose or missing, with the river visible through the gaps. Motorbikes pass within an arm's length on the inside lane. It is safe for anyone paying attention and a poor idea for anyone looking only at a phone.

The motorbike lanes keep left, one of the few places in the country where traffic does. Anyone riding over it for the first time should go slowly.

When is the best time to walk the bridge?

The best time to walk Long Bien is the hour before sunset. The light comes low along the river from the west, and the city behind you turns orange. Early morning is the other good time, when the market at the Hanoi end is still busy.

Trains cross several times a day, and being on the bridge when one passes is loud and memorable. There is no timetable posted on the bridge itself, so treat a train as luck rather than a plan.

Photographers come for the rust and the trains. From the walkway the girders converge over the track toward the far bank, and a crossing train gives the frame its scale. Keep bags and tripods out of the motorbike lane, which has no room for either.

What is under and around the bridge?

Under Long Bien lies Bai Giua, a long sandbank island in the Red River farmed with bananas and vegetables. A staircase on the bridge leads down to it, and the island is a strange rural pocket inside the city.

At the Hanoi end, Long Bien station and the wholesale market beside it work mostly at night, when fruit and vegetables arrive for the city's markets. The motorbike cargo guide describes the loads that leave it before dawn.

How does the bridge fit a day in Hanoi?

Long Bien is five minutes' walk from Dong Xuan market, at the northern edge of the Old Quarter. That makes it the natural end to an afternoon in the market streets, walked at sunset before dinner.

Walk out to the middle and back rather than all the way across, since the far bank has little for a visitor. The Hanoi things to do page covers the rest of the city, and the train to Hai Phong still leaves from the station at the bridge.