Lugou Bridge stands over the Yongding River of Lugou Bridge County of Fengtai District of Beijing. It's the oldest multiarched stone bridge ever preserved in Beijing. Yongding River used to be called Lugou River. The bridge was also named after it. Lugou Bridge was first built in Jin Dynasty in 1189 in North China. It was destroyed by the flood in the Kangxi Age of Qing Dynasty and was rebuilt in 1698. As the famous Italian travel-notes writer Marco Polo wrote in his journal, "It is the greatest, incomparablebridge in the world". Lugou Bridge was designed according to the feature of the currents of Yongding River. It is built of solid granite, 266.5 m. in length, including the bridge approaches on the two ends. Lugou Bridge is also famous for its stone sculpting art. The bridge is supported on 280 pillars, with lotus seats and lotus leaf frusta on them. The bridge has 279 parapet stone slabs between the pillars. The inner side of the slabs and outside of the bridge are carved with images of clouds and vases. On each pillar stands various stone lions carved in dynasties of Jin, Yuan, Ming, Qing. Most of them were made in Ming and Qing. Those carved in Jin and Yuan are rare. They are of various postures, as alive as real ones. A saying in Beijing said that there are countless lions on Lugou Bridge. In 1961, by numbering the stone lions, people finally figured out there were altogether 485 stone lions on the bridge. In 1984, after a careful reexamination, the number became 489. In the east of Lugou Bridge lies Wanping County. It is where the "Lugou Bridge Incident" took place on July, 7th, 1937, and thereby started the War against Japanese Invasion. You can still see the shot marks on the city wall of Wanping County even today.
Notes: Multiarched Stone Bridge: The bridge is composed of multiarches, connected by piers. Pillar: or balusters;the ancient bridges are often supported by pillars.