The River and the bridge

Hanoi is built on the banks of the Red River (Song Hong). I saw a black and white photo from the French colonial period in the Vietnam Airlines in-flight magazine that showed a public promenade along the river banks, with carriages, streetlights and people strolling. But the river floods and that was a long time ago. The French built a levee and the city turned its back on the river.

Most of the time, the river is a ghost. I've tried to access the river from An Duong but all the little alleys dead-end before they get to the river, when literally it's a stone's throw away. We have a view of the river out of the corner of an upstairs window if you stand on your tiptoes (the first photo is looking back at the An Duong area - the large building in silhouette is the Sofitel Plaza nearby). You cross the river on your way from Hanoi Noibai Airport, but after that it's possible to spend a lot of time here and never see the river. In fact, you have to go out of your way to catch a glimpse.


There's one exception: the Long Bien Bridge. Making it my goal for the day to see the river, I rode out to the bridge. Its a rusting hulk of a rail bridge build by the French in 1903, designed by Gustave Eiffel (thank you Wikipedia). On either side there's a narrow path for pedestrians, bicycles, and (mostly) motorbikes. But it gets you out over the river, and across to the other side. Their are even little produce markets in the middle, which seem to me to be the least convenient location for a market I can think of.

I was struck by how wide the Red River actually is - I would say the bridge is 1 1/2 to 2 times as long as the Golden Gate Bridge (someone can look this up and prove me wrong). Anyway, it's wide. There's a relatively narrow channel, and then an island, and then the wide expanse. There's even farming on the island, but there's no way to get to it from the bridge above, so people must row there (or jump off the bridge I suppose).

Looking back at the city, you can see just exactly how much the city doesn't face the river; it's mostly the backs of buildings and some swampy areas. It's also a good place to check out the skyline: mostly low buildings with totally random high-rises popping up every so often. It's really a city without a defined skyline or modern business district, quite a contrast from other Asian cities I've been to like Shanghai or Bangkok. Switzky, maybe you can work on modeling a downtown mound for Hanoi.