The festival, initiated by an overseas Vietnamese in France, architect Nguyen Nga, was announced at an exhibition on the bridge that opened at the Vietnam Cultural Centre in Paris on June 22.

Addressing the ceremony, Nga, who is director of Maison des Arts (House of Arts), said the festival aims to reflect the close attachment Hanoians have had to the bridge over the past century.

She also said the initiative is supported by the Vietnamese Foreign Ministry, the Hanoi People’s Committee, and especially by many Hanoians, who are eager to contribute materials and effort to the project. Her husband, French director Daniel Roussel, who is known for his films about Vietnam, will also give a helping hand with a film about the Long Bien Bridge.

Inaugurated in 1903, the Long Bien Bridge, the work of the famous French architect Gustave Eiffel, was one of the world’s four longest bridges in early 20th century.

The bridge serves as a link between past and present, and enduring witness to Hanoi’s ups and downs during French colonialism, two resistance wars, and on through the country’s national construction and reform.

It has become a familiar image for generations of Hanoians and a historical and cultural symbol of the capital city.