For centuries, travelers crossing the Xiu River in Yongxiu County relied on the Zhanggongdu Ferry. At this three-hundred-meter-wide passage, the riverbed is uneven. Fine sand shifts constantly on the left bank, while gravel stabilizes the right. In 1939, during the Nanchang Campaign, Chinese soldiers burned a temporary wooden bridge here to block the advancing Japanese army. After the war, in 1946, United Nations workers brought tractors and harvesters to establish a modern demonstration farm nearby. Then, a devastating fire in 1962 destroyed the bustling historic market street along the shore.

In 1965, a young schoolteacher arrived at Zhanggongdu Primary School. The concrete Qiujin Old Bridge was still under construction, rising above the water to replace the ancient ferry. Its completion ended the ferry era, and the old port fell silent. Decades later, engineers built the Qiujin New Bridge downstream to carry the heavy freight of National Highways 105 and 316 toward Yunju Mountain and Longyuan Gorge.

Today, the Qiujin Bridge stand as physical records of this shifting landscape. Beneath them, the Qiujin Hydrological Station monitors the river's volatile moods. Invisible sensors embedded in the concrete continuously measure vibration, joint expansion, and stress strain. This data streams directly to the Jiujiang Road Network Monitoring Center. The modern bridge is a watchful sentinel, holding fast against the rising waters of the Xiu River.