Long Bien Bridge
Cầu Long Biên
A 120-year-old iron bridge framing Red River sunsets
- Hours
- Always open (except during repairs)
- Tickets
- Free
- Address
- Access on the Hanoi side by Long Bien Station on Tran Nhat Duat Street, ten minutes' walk from Dong Xuan Market
The French spanned the Red River with this iron bridge of a little over two kilometres between 1899 and 1902. It was bombed repeatedly in the Vietnam War, and the patches still show in the girders. Trains rumble down the middle while motorbikes, bicycles and pedestrians share the narrow lanes on either side. Halfway across you see the wide brown river, banana plots on the midstream island and the city behind; at sunset the light drops through the rusted trusses.