Da Nang’s Dragon Bridge, probably our favourite (and without a doubt the most badass) modern structure in Vietnam, received international recognition last week at an award ceremony in Washington DC.
The bridge, built by American architects Luis Berger Group and Ammann & Whitney, was among eight works presented with the American Council of Engineering Companies’ (ACEC) ‘Engineering Excellence Award,’ according to VietNamNet.
The bridge’s main architect, Tom Andesson said that his design was based on the Vietnamese creation myth of the dragon king, Lac Long Quan, who ruled around 2800 B.C., and his fairy wife, Au Co.
The 666-metre bridge was inaugurated last year and connects the airport, My Khe beach in the Son Tra peninsula and Hoi An.
Built at a cost of VND1.7 trillion ($85 million), the fire-breathing bridge spans 666 meters and weighs in at 2,000 tons. Its architecture is unique to the region as it’s the only bridge with a single steel arch in SE Asia.
