Manangyo Bridge

This bridge was built in 1795, the nineteenth year of King Jeongjo's reign, to provide passage for his processions to Hyeollyungwon, the tomb of his father, Crown Prince Sado. Originally the road from Seoul to Suwon crossed the Hangang River at Yongsan to reach Noryangjin, then passed through Dongjak to Gwacheon. However, this route had many bridges and the steep pass of Namtaeryeong, making it difficult to prepare the road and travel it with a royal procession; it also passed the grave associated with Kim Sang-no, who had incited King Yeongjo and thereby brought about the death of Crown Prince Sado. Finding this displeasing, King Jeongjo had the route changed to go by way of Siheung. It had been customary to erect a wooden bridge along the route of a royal procession and dismantle it immediately afterwards, rebuilding it whenever the king travelled again. The Siheung road was opened in 1794, the eighteenth year of King Jeongjo, and in its first year a temporary wooden bridge was used in this way; but the trouble of repeatedly building and removing the bridge, together with the hardship it caused ordinary people who could not use it in normal times, led to the construction of a permanent stone bridge. The bridge originally measured about 15 jang (roughly 30 m) in length, 4 jang (about 8 m) in width and 3 jang (about 6 m) in height, with five arched water gates; today it has seven arches, suggesting that the design was altered during construction. The arches form neat semicircles built of finely dressed long rectangular stones, with further courses of the same stone laid across the top to form the road surface. The overall construction is highly refined, and the bridge is regarded as a representative arched stone bridge of the late Joseon period. It originally stood about 200 m to the south, at the entrance to what is now Manan-ro, but was moved to its present site and restored in 1980 when the national highway was widened. A stele erected at the time of the bridge's construction stands on its southern side.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Anyang, Gyeonggi

Designation

Provincial Tangible Heritage · 시도유형문화유산