In the baking sun of March, Nguyen Van Tong and a team of workers are paddling in the shallow water and mud to drive in a concrete pile into the bed of a canal, with help from a tractor. Their shirts are damp with sweat. They are building the 150th suspension bridge as a gift for the people in Nhon My Commune, An Giang Province.

Nguyen Van Tong (L) guides his workers to build a bridge (Photo: SGGP)

It is a 52 meter suspension bridge over a canal in My Thanh Hamlet. The bridge is 10 meters in width and 10 meters above the water. The cost of the bridge is VND135 million (US$7.605), of which VND 90 million has been contributed by Mr Tong.

Talking about his life, Tong recalled, “I was born and grew up in An Giang. Between 1978 and 1988, I was a teacher.

I was paid only 38 dong and 43 pennies a month at the time, not enough to feed our six children. To cover their schooling, my industrious wife had to work very hard on the garden all day long to gain every penny from the sale of various vegetables.”

To seek a brighter future, one day at the end of 1988, Tong took an adventurous decision by taking his wife and their children to Ho Chi Minh City to find another living. Their initial stop was space under now Le Van Sy Bridge, where they lived their first days in the city.

Since he did not know what to do in order to earn the daily bread for his family, Tong decided to work as a dealer in bottles and scrap iron.

By saving every penny from this humble job, two years later, Tong had enough funds to open a workshop specializing in all manner of waste materials, like damaged iron sheets, old folding doors, house frames, timber and planks and used them as materials for manufacturing new doors and windows and window frames.

His successful business affirmed the old adage ‘where there’s muck there’s brass.’

By the end of 1996, Tong decided to leave the management of the workshop to the care of his wife and their oldest sons and went back his hometown in Vinh Binh Commune of An Giang to set up a building company.

Located in the Mekong Delta, An Giang is a region with meandering networks of canals. The only means for local people to cross such canals is by walking across cau khi (monkey bridges) that are suspended about 2 two meters or more above the water. These footbridges are usually built of uneven logs between 30 and 80 cm wide and have bamboo poles as railings.

Tong recalled, “Since monkey bridges are unsafe for women and children, I began to nurture a burning ambition of building durable concrete bridges to replace them. This would give the locals easier and safer access across the canals.”

To achieve such an ambition, Tong had spent a lot of time acquiring necessary knowledge and skills concerning building suspension bridges from reference books or materials available on the internet, as he is not a civil engineer. He also learned from some of his colleagues, who worked in the same profession.

By the end of 1997, Tong began to build his first bridge over a canal that runs past the school he used to teach in. On inauguration day, hundreds of local people flocked to the bridge to congratulate him as a hero. Many could not hold back their tears when taking their first steps on the newly-built bridge.

Tong said, “I spent nearly VND110 million (US$6,197) on the building of the bridge, but it was worth it. I was happy because the kids have a safe route to school.”

Inspired by his initial success, Tong established Thien Tam (Kind Heart) Building Company, which is responsible for mobilizing funds from benefactors and uses the proceeds for building charity bridges in the delta.

Ever since, Tong has traveled through out the delta from Long An Province to Ca Mau to build hundreds of suspension bridges over canals in remote areas. The impoverished people in the region have proffered the nickname ‘King of Suspension Bridges,’ as a way to express their heartfelt thanks to him and the noble deeds he has pursued for years.

Tong said, “I’ve done this work because of my calling, not because of profit. I will try my best to build as many concrete bridges as possible to replace dangerous monkey bridges. I hope that there will be no more monkey bridges in rural areas in the not distant future.”