Faux Namti Bridge

The Faux Namti Bridge (French: Viaduc de Faux-Namti) (alt. Nami-ti), also known as Wujiazhai Railway Bridge (五家寨铁路桥), or as the Inverted V Bridge (Chinese: 人字桥, rén zì qiáo, referring to the shape of the character 人), is a single-span railway bridge located in Wantang Township (湾塘乡) of Pingbian County, in the Nanxi River valley region in the Chinese province of Yunnan. The bridge spans a gorge 102 m (335 ft) above the Sicha River (Chinese: 四岔河), a tributary of the Nanxi. It is located at kilometer 111 of the Kunming–Hekou Railway, the Chinese portion of part of the Kunming–Haiphong railway. Construction of the bridge was carried out by the French Batignolles Construction Company (Société de Construction des Batignolles), beginning in March 1907 and ending in December 1908.

On either side of the bridge are two tunnels carved out of mountains on either side of the gorge, with a single span of 55 m (180 ft) (measured between the heels of the supporting trusses) stretching between them. The bridge's total length from end to end is 67.2 m (220 ft). The bridge is supported by a three-hinged metal arch, consisting of two triangular trusses arranged similarly to the leaves of a bascule bridge, with the appearance of a widely opened, inverted letter V—hence the name "Inverted V bridge". The two trusses are joined at the centre and riveted together, forming one solid span across the gorge. The heel of each truss rests on a ball joint anchored to a notch cut into the cliff face. The bridge's construction was exceptionally difficult and costly, requiring the development of novel construction methods to deal with the difficult physical conditions of the site.