NAVIGATION ON THE YANGTSE
129
Many of the Chinese government's most ambitious plans are connected with the Yangtse. The bridge at Wuhan, first mooted in 1913, was completed in 1958 at a cost of $35,000,000, and after only two years and four months work. This is of double-deck construction, and 4,465 feet long. The lower level carries a double railroad track, and the upper level vehicle and pedestrian lanes. The bridge crosses the river just below Hankow, and is high enough to allow the largest ocean ships likely to call at Hankow to pass under all year round. Then there is the Three Gorges Dam project, between Ichang and Chungking. This is to provide hydro-electric power, flood control, irrigation, and to improve navigation. A much greater project is the plan to divert Upper Yangtse water into the Yellow River, and surveys have been made to see how much of the Yangtse's flow can be diverted for this purpose.
At present that part of North and North West China drained by the Yellow River has 51% of the cultivated land of China, but only 7% of the surface water flow; while the area around and south of the Yangtse with only 33% of the cultivated land has over 76% of the surface water flow. From these vast schemes under-way or planned, it is plain that in the future the Yangtse will play an even greater role in China's history than in the past.