Xiluo Bridge: A 15-Year Hiatus, Seven Months to Connect North and South

30-Second Overview: Xiluo Bridge was not built in a single phase. Construction began in 1937, and after 32 piers were completed in 1941, the bridge deck work was halted by the war. In 1952, US aid steel arrived in Taiwan, and Taiwanese engineers and foreign technicians completed the bridge in seven months, opening it to traffic in January of the following year. It connected Xizhou in Changhua County and Xiluo in Yunlin County, layering the piers left from the Japanese colonial era, the post-war steel trusses, Taiwan Sugar Railway trains, and local petitions into a history one can walk across. ^{1 2 3}

Image: Wikimedia Commons, author Fcuk1203, CC BY-SA 3.0. Image file page and license: Xiluo Bridge.jpg.

In 1937, the bridge over the lower Zhuoshui River had piers, but no road to walk on. By 1941, after 32 concrete piers were completed, the Pacific War diverted the steel intended for the bridge deck to military use. It was not until December 25, 1952, that the bridge was truly completed, with an opening ceremony held on January 28, 1953. ^{1 2}

What makes Xiluo Bridge most memorable is this temporal gap. The blueprint left the piers first; war, steel shortages, local petitions, and Cold War transportation needs repeatedly rewrote the engineering, so that the bridge only grew its complete steel truss fifteen years later. The piers belonged to one era; the trusses to another. The two were finally joined on the Zhuoshui River into a single road. ^{1 2}

The Zhuoshui River Separated Two Places That Were Close

Xiluo is in Yunlin, and Xizhou is in Changhua. Separated only by the lower Zhuoshui River, crossing the river was once not something one could do simply by wishing it. Archives show that traveling from Taichung to Dounan via Jiji, Zhushan, and Douliu required a 99-kilometer detour. If a bridge crossed the Zhuoshui River, the route could be shortened to 58 kilometers. During the rainy season, traveling from Xiluo to Xizhou required a detour of approximately 80 kilometers. ¹

Distance is superficially a highway issue, but in reality, it is also the time cost of local life. When river levels were low, people could wade across or use a temporary bridge. When rain came, markets, schools, relatives, and goods on both banks were separated by a wide river. Xiluo and Xizhou appeared close, but transportation required a large detour. This is the background against which local residents constantly demanded the construction of a bridge. ^{1 3}

In 1936, locals established the "Zhuoshui River Humanitarian Bridge Construction Alliance," turning the desire to cross the river into an engineering project that could be presented to the government. The following year, the Taiwan Governor-General’s Office decided to invest in the Zhuoshui River bridge project. Residents on both banks first framed "there should be a bridge" as a public issue, giving the engineering effort a starting point. The Governor-General’s decision and the engineers’ design followed this local demand. ^{1 3 4}

Curator’s Note: Long before the first steel beam of a bridge appeared, locals had already built it into public life through petitions, meetings, and waiting.

The 32 Piers Stalled by War

Construction began in 1937, and the piers were completed in 1940 or 1941. Different official and historical records vary slightly on the year, but all point to the same structural fact: the piers were completed first, and the bridge deck was added later. Cultural heritage registration data lists 1938 as the official start year and records that work halted around 1941 due to the Pacific War. ^{1 2 3}

The piers are not merely the background of an unfinished product. They are the most concrete temporal markers of the bridge today. The substructure consists mainly of portal-frame reinforced concrete piers completed during the Japanese colonial era, while the superstructure is a Warren truss composed of steel from the early post-war period. Standing on the bridge, one sees a red steel bridge, but beneath one’s feet lies an engineering joint left by two different political eras. ²

War removed the bridge’s steel from the Zhuoshui River, directing it toward military use. After Japan’s surrender in 1945, the Taiwan Provincial Administrative Headquarters and local figures attempted to reacquire steel, even contacting the Anshan Iron and Steel Plant, Japan, the UK, and the US. The February 28 Incident and the Chinese Civil War successively caused social and material instability, and the engineering work did not truly return to the bridge. ¹

This stagnation represents more than just "project delay." It exposed a batch of completed piers to the river, time, and political changes, forcing local residents to repeatedly explain to new government agencies why the same problem of crossing the river had not disappeared. In 1948, Liao Chong-guang and Li Ying-tang established the Xiluo Bridge Restoration Committee, turning local waiting back into action. ⁴

US Aid Steel Arrived After the Korean War

By the end of 1949, after the central government moved to Taiwan, local representatives from Changhua and Yunlin again petitioned the Taiwan Provincial Council. In 1950, Li Wan-ju suggested seeking US aid to complete the bridge. The language of the project expanded from "local transportation" to "wartime transport": if north-south transport relied solely on the Cross-Island Railway, there would be no alternative support route during war. ¹

Before US aid steel arrived, Xiluo Bridge had already waited longer in ports and documents. The US had originally agreed to provide steel, but after the outbreak of the Korean War in June 1950, steel exports to Taiwan were suspended due to battlefield demands. This is another counter-intuitive aspect of Xiluo Bridge: it was delayed by the Cold War situation, yet it was also the Cold War situation that made Taiwan’s transportation and military positions more valued, finally creating the conditions for resuming work. ^{1 2}

In April and November 1952, two batches of steel arrived in Taiwan from the US. Taiwan Machinery Company, Heavy Machinery Plant, and Taiwan Mining Company undertook the construction, with technical assistance from US, Japanese, and Filipino personnel. Pile driving, framing, beam installation, riveting, painting, and deck paving were compressed into a single construction season. ¹

Beam installation required precise handling of weather, earthquakes, tools, and construction conditions. Archives record that the bridge was completed early on December 25, 1952, taking about seven months from resumption to completion. This number should not be dismissed as a "miracle." It is closer to a temporarily assembled international engineering team, which, once materials were finally in place, caught up on fifteen years of stagnation in one go. ¹

A Bridge Carrying Both Cars and Narrow-Gauge Trains

Xiluo Bridge is approximately 1,939 meters long, with a deck width of about 7.3 meters. It uses a Warren through-truss design, with steel frames and concrete piers. The Cultural Heritage Network lists it as a historical bridge, recording its registration on October 31, 2001. ^{2 3}

The deck was once not only for cars. Taiwan Sugar Railway trains also ran on the bridge, with the image of trains and cars running side by side placing the Zhuoshui River’s sugarcane, goods, people, and vehicles into the same transportation cross-section. Yunlin County Government data indicates that as the importance of the sugar railway declined, slippery tracks caused accidents, leading to the removal of the tracks on the bridge; today, only the highway section remains. ³

This change means that "transportation infrastructure" is no longer just a story of faster speed. When the Taiwan Sugar Railway was active, the bridge was a tool for industrial transport. When the tracks were removed, the bridge left a trace of an industrial era receding into the background. Today, walking across the red truss, readers cannot see the narrow-gauge trains, but can imagine from the bridge’s scale how it once shared a narrow road with the highway. ³

Image: Wikimedia Commons, author Shangkuanlc, CC BY-SA 3.0. Image file page and license: Taiwan Province Yunlin County Xiluo Town Xiluo Bridge-1.jpg.

The opening ceremony on January 28, 1953, gave this long wait a public moment. Photos, documents, and opening commemorative postmarks preserved by the Archives show crowds flooding into Xiluo Town, with slogans like "Once the bridge is open, North and South are family" appearing on streets and walls. This phrase was not a pretty metaphor added to the bridge later. It appeared on the local streets and walls on the day of the opening, recording how residents understood the bridge. ¹

Curator’s Note: The bridge once carried cars and trains, and also carried the collective sigh of relief from residents on both banks who could finally go directly across.

How the Bridge Became a Road in Seven Months

The resumption of Xiluo Bridge was not simply about delivering steel to the riverbank. Engineering narratives preserved in the archives break construction into several interlinked stages: piers must first support the superstructure; steel beams must be lifted when river conditions allow; riveting and joining work must be completed on-site; finally, a deck capable of bearing car traffic must be paved. These tasks cannot be summarized as merely "fast," because any delay in one link would push the seven-month construction season back into the next wait. ¹

The bridge’s span also makes it a visible engineering scale. The Cultural Heritage Network records a total length of 1,939.03 meters, while Yunlin County Government records a deck width of about 7.3 meters. This is not a dike that flattens the two banks, but a road that repeatedly passes through steel trusses, with piers transferring the weight to the riverbed. The 31 or so truss holes readers see correspond to an engineering method that breaks long distances into multiple structural units. ^{2 3 4}

The deck at the time also had to face the natural conditions of the Zhuoshui River. The river was wide with strong scouring forces, so pier positions could not be determined solely by extending the lines of roads on both banks. Engineering had to find constructible nodes between transportation needs and river environments. This is why the history of the bridge cannot be written only as "US aid construction." US aid provided critical steel; local petitions provided sustained political pressure; the engineering team turned materials into a structure capable of bearing daily traffic. ^{1 2}

From the Shortest Route to the Longest Memory

Xiluo Bridge was once called the No. 1 Bridge in the Far East. Cultural heritage registration data cites "the longest bridge in the Far East at the time, the second longest in the world" as part of its historical value, while Transportation History describes it as the longest bridge in East Asia when it opened in 1953. The ranking contexts of different sources are not entirely identical, so a more stable statement is: at the time of opening, it became an engineering project that attracted attention in East Asian and Far Eastern bridge history due to its scale of nearly two kilometers. ^{2 4}

Later, the Zhongsha Bridge and other transportation routes took over its original transport functions. The Cultural Heritage Network records that Xiluo Bridge is still open to traffic but is no longer the only north-south artery. After its transportation role changed, the bridge’s value did not automatically become purely scenic. It still faces practical issues such as deck maintenance, traffic safety, steel rust prevention, and cross-county management coordination. Preservation is not about sealing the bridge in time, but allowing it to continue undergoing public scrutiny while still in use. ^{2 3}

A 2025 United Daily News report also showed that local cultural groups hoped to upgrade its status to a national monument, while the Changhua County Cultural Assets Review Committee decided to maintain its status as a historical building, citing reasons such as the existence of similar bridges, the uniqueness of the structural form, and the criteria for monument designation. This decision does not mean Xiluo Bridge lacks historical value, but that different cultural heritage statuses have different proof thresholds. Bridge preservation therefore requires simultaneously handling engineering judgment, historical narrative, and local expectations. ⁵

This debate should not be simplified into "locals want tourism" versus "experts do not value history." The cultural heritage status must answer another question: what system should preserve a bridge that is still in use, requires structural maintenance, and derives value from engineering, transportation, industry, and local memory? The present of Xiluo Bridge still requires people to make concrete choices between traffic safety and historical preservation. ^{2 5}

An article in Taiwan Panorama wrote Xiluo Bridge as the starting point for Xiluo people to realize their dreams in the north, recording how the bridge’s red steel structure, the Zhuoshui River riverbed, and local cultural activities have reshaped the way it is viewed. The bridge’s transportation function can be replaced, but its function as a local landmark has not disappeared. ⁶

At night, the red truss is no longer just an engineering structure, but a landscape where one can walk, drink coffee, and watch the sunset. Another Taiwan Panorama article points out that while newer bridges bear most of the traffic, Xiluo Bridge remains in the sightlines of locals due to its night lighting. The night lighting of an old bridge need not be romanticized. After infrastructure steps down from the front line, it may still transform into a container for public memory. ⁷

The Piers Did Not Wrap Up History

The story of Xiluo Bridge was not completed when it opened in 1953, nor finalized when it was registered as a historical building in 2001. It was first an engineering project for local residents to shorten distances, then a facility for the post-war government to seek US aid and maintain transport, then a segment of the Taiwan Sugar Railway, and finally a cultural asset requiring cross-county negotiation. None of these layers completely erased the previous ones. ^{1 2 3}

If one only calls it "the No. 1 Bridge in the Far East," readers will remember the ranking, but not why the bridge body has two different eras. If one only calls it a "historical building," readers will know it should be preserved, but may not understand why residents on both banks were willing to wait fifteen years. If one only photographs it as a red landscape under the sunset, the narrow-gauge trains and construction sites on the bridge will disappear from the frame.

A reading closer to Xiluo Bridge is to see it as a timeline that has been connected multiple times. The piers started in 1937 were not replaced by the steel beams of 1952; the Taiwan Sugar tracks did not disappear due to removal; local petitions did not lose meaning after the opening ceremony. They all remain on today’s bridge, just seen in different ways. ^{1 2 3}

Standing on the bridge, the Zhuoshui River still divides Changhua and Yunlin into two banks. But the bridge turns this division into a distance one can walk. The most enduring aspect of Xiluo Bridge is not how long it once was. It allows a bridge’s history to simultaneously record "how to cross the river" and how a group of people, when war, materials, and systems were not in their own control, kept the act of crossing the river in public life.

Further Reading

• Taiwan Sugar Railway: How a Narrow-Gauge Train Passed Through Taiwan’s Industrial Memory
• History of Taiwan’s Railways: How Railways Rewrote Distances on the Island
• Jiannan Ditch: How a Waterway Changed Agriculture and Local Life

References