The Wuhan Yangtze River Bridge is a witness to the country's rapid development over the past six decades.[Photo/VCG]

The monument at the Wuhan Yangtze River Bridge is carved with the names of 28 experts from the former Soviet Union. Konstantin Silin's is first.

On Oct 15, 1957, the 1,670­meter bridge - the first over the river - opened for traffic after 25 months of construction. It was completed two years earlier than planned.

The project time was cut by half thanks to a new method used for the bridge's foundation, which was suggested by Silin, the chief engineer and bridge expert sent by the Soviet Union in the summer of 1954.

It was the third time that Silin was sent to China to help the country to fix crumbling bridges and to build new ones.

Mao Zedong praised the bridge in one of his poems: "A bridge will fly to span the north and south, turning a deep chasm into a thoroughfare."