Review
There are many famous rivers in the world, I believe everyone is very impressed, these big rivers are famous for different reasons, some because they are very long, some because of the large flow, and some because of the long history, which has given birth to a very valuable culture.
But there is such a river, known for its story with a bridge, called the Choluteca River, on the border between Honduras and Nicaragua.
In order to meet the needs of the locals, the government built a bridge here, but what makes people laugh and cry is that after a baptism of wind, the bridge is still there, but the river is gone.
Joluteca Bridge
Let's start with this country called Honduras, which is located in Central America, has a very hot climate and is surrounded by a lot of rainforest.
Although this country is only a small country in the world, on the whole, it is still relatively distinctive.
Especially the natural landscape created by the climate, under the shroud of tropical pressure, there will be a lot of rainfall here throughout the year, especially in some relatively high places, because it is a windward slope, so the water vapor will be lifted, produce topographic rain, so that the precipitation reaches a peak, historical records show that the northern part of the country has experienced precipitation of up to 3000 mm.
Of course, the tropical climate is not its only meteorological feature, the country is also in the active zone of hurricanes, which it experiences every summer.
Because it is very close to the Atlantic Ocean, the frequency of hurricanes is very high, bringing a lot of inconvenience to the production and life of local people. In extreme cases, there are also varying degrees of human and property damage.
Therefore, most of the buildings here need to be very windresistant, especially outdoor facilities.
As a very important river in the area, the Choluteca River is an important passage for people to communicate, so the construction of bridges here is also a rigid demand.
In order to ensure the quality of the bridge construction, the local government also invited a team of experts from Japan to come over, in order to make the bridge meet the standards for reaching hurricanes.
According to the records of the time, the Japanese architectural team, after careful investigation and research, decided to use the arch bridge structure for the design, rather than the more common suspension structure.
After their efforts, the Joluteca Bridge was finally successfully completed, which brought great convenience to the locals.
But no one expected that the hurricane did not shake the bridge, but took away the river under the bridge, which is also a bizarre story in the history of human architecture.
In the fall of 1998, hurricanes from the Atlantic Ocean, named Mitch, brought devastating disaster to Honduras, carrying not only enormous energy, but also staying longer than any previous hurricane.
This means that the Honduras region must face high levels of sustained rainfall, as well as infrastructure damage and casualties caused by the devastating power of the hurricanes.
It was not until after the hurricane that people realized how terrible the damage was, more than 2 million people lost their homes, preliminary direct economic losses amounted to 6 billion dollars, and Honduras's construction achievements in more than a decade were destroyed.
River diversion
In addition to the sadness, people were surprised to find that under the standing Choluteca Bridge, the river that originally flowed down had disappeared.
Of course, it did not really disappear, but it completely changed course, completely changed position, and went to a place hundreds of meters away.
If the bridge had not been built, perhaps people would not have quickly realized this seemingly absurd fact, the hurricane did not tear down the bridge, but blew the river elsewhere, which is simply unheard of, and on the empty plain, the strong figure of the Joluteca Bridge seems a little ridiculous at the moment.
According to experts, this is not a once-in-a-century miracle, and if you carefully analyze the trajectory and manner of the hurricane's activity at that time, it can indeed be done in theory.
First of all, the heavy rainfall brought by the hurricane caused flash floods, and the piers of the Joluteca Bridge have actually been washed away, and the last thing you see is only the main part of the bridge, that is, the structure of the arch bridge, so why did the river change course?
The reason is also very simple, because the flash flood carries a large amount of sediment, and after the sand flows to the plain area, the movement speed gradually slows down and slowly begins to accumulate.
Under the action of various forces, the direction of the river was gradually changed, and even a new channel was washed out of it, so that there was a new river hundreds of meters away that we saw, which can be said to be very interesting.
The Choluteca Bridge is a famous bridge today, not because of how grand its structure is or how powerful its design is, but because it is a bridge without a river.
It has also become a place for many people to sightsee, as long as they come to Honduras, they will definitely go here to check in, it can be said that they have become a local Internet celebrity, and to some extent, it has also driven the development of the tourism economy here.
It is precisely because of this that the government did not clean up the bridge, but made it a unique cultural landscape.
epilogue
Of course, it is funny to realize that this is not an accidental event, and the reason why the river can be rerouted, in addition to the force majeure factors of the hurricane, is largely related to local environmental problems.
This is because the water and soil damage caused by overdevelopment has caused flash floods due to precipitation, and eventually because siltation has hindered the normal flow of rivers, the local government must pay attention to the protection of the environment to avoid other irreversible consequences in the future.