Here is the most important bridge on the East China Railway, and spectacular evidence of the activities of Polish engineers in Manchuria. It was they who built, planned, managed and - as it turns out - manufactured in this part of China. Over time, however, memory has begun to fade and the names of the builders have become distorted.

History of the Harbin Bridge
The importance of the bridge is evidenced by the fact that the gauge on the bridge was changed three times to accommodate the standard gauge, then the Russian gauge and then the standard gauge again. Each of these modifications represents a new era in the history of Harbin and China as a whole.

The authors of the two commemorative plaques placed on the bridge must have been lost in this uncomplicated and no doubt intercontinental history. One states that the Russian expert Liandovski was responsible for the creation of the crossing. The other informs that it was designed by "Kerbez", while the engineer "Liduovsky" acted as construction manager.

Information is also exposed everywhere that the bridge was the longest of the 912 metal and 258 stone crossings that were erected along the East China Railway. The past tense is deliberately used here, as it was taken out of rail traffic in 2014. A new crossing adapted to high-speed railway conditions was opened next to it.

The old bridge has been restored and has become an important attraction for the five-million-strong city of Harbin. Richly illuminated, it serves as a meeting place, although parts of the newly inserted transparent sheathing are a challenge for those suffering from a fear of heights; a look down into the grey-brown current of the Sungari will make many dizzy.

Sungari - grand plans
The Sungari, called the Pine Blossom River by the Chinese, is the right bank and largest of the tributaries of the Black Dragon River, the Amur. In turn, the Amur itself marks the line on which the Russians intended to base their border with the Middle Kingdom. But in 1858, when they succeeded, they followed suit. Weakened China seemed an easy opponent, although here the Romanovs were determined to hold off the English, the French and the increasingly active Japanese.

When further expansion seemed impossible, Russian politician and future Prime Minister Sergei Witte devised a plan involving the economic conquest of the lands around Sungaria, or China's Inner Mongolia and Manchuria. The cutting edge of this concept was the railway. Bribed Chinese officials slipped the deal to Empress Regent Cixi, and she ratified it.

It was 1898, and thanks to an earlier expedition led by a Pole, Stefan Offenberg, the plans for the East China Railway were already lying in the drawers of St Petersburg decision-makers. Construction of the extraterritorial route linking the Siberian city of Chita with Vladivostok could begin.

The East China Railway and the longest bridge in Harbin
One of the most important, if not the most important symbol of the East China Railway became the Harbin Bridge, also known as the first bridge over the Sungari or the first superbridge. It also became a harbinger of the spectacular crossings being built in China today. It was commissioned in October 1901 after sixteen or, according to Russian sources, twenty-five months of work.

It measured 950 metres in length (this figure was slightly increased as a result of renovations) and 7.2 metres in width. It was constructed with 19 steel spans supported on 18 pillars, nine of which stand in the river current and another nine in the floodplain. The pillars were made of granite and their quality and strength are still praised today by Chinese engineers, who joke that anyone working on them must expect rheumatism.

The dampness around can be penetrating and unhealthy. It is significant that during the construction of these supports, a specific model of reinforced concrete caissons, i.e. huge boxes in which hydrological work is carried out, was used for the first time in the world. This solution was one of the first to be described and later used in practice by the engineer Aleksander Łętowski. Could it be, then, that this 'Liandovski' or 'Liduovsky' was him? This version was confirmed by Harbin-born historian and journalist Edward Kajdański and later Polish researchers, suggesting that the engineer was Polish. However, it is most likely that he was of Russian nationality, which seems to be confirmed by excerpts from the lists of students at the Institute of Communication Engineers in St Petersburg, from which Łętowski graduated. They show that he was "a graduate of a Moscow gymnasium, of the Orthodox faith". His Russian origin was also the first to be pointed out by representatives of the Szczecin Harbin Club.

However, there can be no doubt as to Kierbedzi's nationality, and his name - Kajdański testified - was originally baptised the bridge across the Sungari.

Polish engineers in China
The crossing, originally informally known as the Kierbedzia Bridge, was already in Warsaw and lasted until 1944. It was the first steel structure across the Vistula. It was designed and supervised the entire construction by Stanisław Kierbedź, but around 1900 he was no longer able to stay in Manchuria by any means.

However, the famous engineer had a nephew, also Stanislaw and also an engineer. "Young Kierbedź", as Witte called him in his letters, was appointed vice-president of the East China Railway Society in the 1890s, but de facto it was he, not his political principal, who managed the entire construction. Probably Polak did not have time to design the bridges himself, as his decisions had to be awaited at the same time by a thousand engineers crossing, digging tunnels or laying rails.

However, it was within his remit to place orders for materials and it is known that the spans for the largest bridge on the East China Railway were made in the Congress Kingdom. They were shipped by ship from the far country on the Vistula River up to the mouth of the Amur and then sailed up the Black Dragon River to the banks of the Sungari, the Harbi engineer argues in an interview with local television. "They looked like bread" - and the distinctive shape of the spans, Chin described with a flick of the wrist - and served until the 1970s, when they were replaced by less elaborate trapezoids called Werner trusses. However, elements of this bridge, such as the abutments or parts of the plating, may still come from Zawiercie or Dąbrowa Górnicza.

The greatest memory is weaker than the weakest ink (Chinese proverb)
. The construction of the superbridge may have become known as the 'Kierbedzia Bridge' thanks to the young Stanisław Kierbedzi, who managed its construction. This is all the more likely because the managing staff was dominated by Poles, so they were presumably familiar with the Warsaw prototype. It is also known that 'young Kierbedź', like his uncle, was a patriot and did everything to support Polish industry. So if the spans for the Harbin bridge came from the Congress Kingdom, it is likely that elements of other bridges were also made there. They later sailed halfway around the world and, following the Amur and Sungari, arrived at the construction site. One can guess that they were announced as consignments from Mr Kierbedzia. This was not easy for the indigenous people to pronounce and in time 'Kerbez' appeared, as evidenced by the present bridge records.

Over a century later, the irrepressible Stanislaw Doba was preparing an expedition to Harbin, during which he intended to present the city authorities with a plaque containing the correct data. A pandemic and then the traveller's sudden death thwarted these plans. Let us be of good cheer, however; perhaps soon changes will be made and not only will the names of the architect and builder of the bridge - Aleksander Łętowski - and the manager of the entire construction - Stanisław Kierbedź - be correctly pronounced, but also the adjective "Polish" will appear next to the latter!