The Longteng Bridge is a former bridge in Longteng Village Sanyi Township, Miaoli County, Taiwan.HistoryThe bridge was built in 1906 during the Japanese colonial period. It was designed by the American civil engineers Theodore Cooper and C.C. Schneider for the Japanese colonial government. The bridge was named after a local plant believed to be poisonous to fish; legends believed that a malevolent carp in a nearby lake was responsible for misfortune, and residents planted the shrub to counter the carp. The original design consists of a central steel truss flanked by multiple brick masonry arch approaches.The April 1935 Hsinchu-Taichung earthquake and subsequent aftershocks in July damaged the bridge beyond repair. Several masonry arches were cracked and the north and south ends of the truss became misaligned. A new iron bridge was built in 1938, 80 meters to the west of Longteng Bridge, and the central truss was dismantled once the new bridge opened.The 1999 921 earthquake caused one of the remaining piers to collapse and as a result, the county government decided to rededicate the bridge's remains as a monument to the two deadliest earthquakes in Taiwan's history. It was placed on the list of Taiwan's Cultural Heritage Assets (Historical Site #KA09602001112) on 25 November 2003.ArchitectureThe 1938 bridge stands at 50 meters tall and 200 meters long, making it the highest iron bridge in Taiwan.