The legendary city of Hue once the royal capital of Nguyen Dynasty has risen like a phoenix, collecting its ashes and is once again showing a dynamism that has partly been stimulated by UNESCO's attention to its monuments since 1983. Today though a changed city, this Imperial City's traditions are still alive and amply exhibited in the sampans poled along by women, in the houseboats with their tiny rooftop shrines, in the superb Hue porcelain, and in the delicacies of imperial cuisine. A major tourism destination, Hue Imperial City is a city landscaped with beautiful gardens, peeping terraces, magnificent palaces, and majestic pavilions that rightfully deserve a place among the heritage of the world. Trang Tien Bridge, Hue is among the various landmarks of Hue.
There are more than ten bridges spanning the Huong River, however none of the ten bridges have been able to make a mark as a symbol of Hue like the Trang Tien Bridge - Truong Tien Brigde.
As written in Annual of Unified Great Nam by "The office of Vietnam History" of the Nguyen Dynasty, "the metal bridge Trang Tien in the south east of the Capital commenced to be built in the 9th year of King Thanh Thai (1897) and then finished in 1899. The bridge is about 400m long with 6 spans".
The colossal metal structure of the Trang Tien Bridge was affected by a terrible typhoon in August 1904, which devastated the Center of Vietnam, and left 6 spans of the bridge broken. Only two spans of the bridge could sustain the onslaught of the catastrophic typhoon.
The bridge was reconstructed in 1906. Since then the Trang Tien Bridge or Truong Tien Brigde has been repaired so many times again. Once there used to be a small market at the Trang Tien wharf near the bridge right gate named Dong Ba. Today Dong Ba is the trading center of Hue city.
