Story by David Law (BBO: davidlaw)

Bridge is the most popular card game in the world, played both at home and in competition. The common meaning of bridge (as a verb) is to reach out and join up with, while the noun refers to the physical object that achieves that purpose. This article is not intended to promote the delights of the game or explain how it is played, as you would not be reading this if you were not already converted. Instead, it is a personal memoir of tournaments held in cities with iconic bridges, which I was lucky to attend as a member of the Malaysian bridge team. In most cases, these bridges are geographically or historically important, or have become landmarks of their cities.

The 1984 Asia Pacific (Bridge Federation) Championships were held in Macau. Macau comprises a peninsula joined to mainland China, and two islands, Taipa—connected to the peninsula by the Macau–Taipa Bridge—and a further island, Coloane, linked to Taipa by a causeway (the sea between the two islands has since been completely reclaimed, and they are now one land mass).

On the last day of play, my partner and I decided to be adventurous, so we took a taxi to Coloane to have breakfast at one of the hotels featured in a guidebook. No sooner had the taxi dropped us off than we discovered that the hotel restaurant did not open until lunch, and we were stuck with no way of getting back. Luckily, a van from another hotel (in Taipa) came to pick up workers, and we hitched a ride. When we arrived, we still had further to go and managed to get into a shared taxi with two other passengers heading to the mainland. On the Macau–Taipa Bridge, we were stopped by the police. Fortunately, we had our passports with us, but the other two passengers were apprehended for not having legal papers. We got back about 45 minutes late, and our opponents sportingly (?) refused a walkover—justified by the results!

The 1985 Asia Pacific Championships were held in Sydney. The Sydney Harbour Bridge, to give it its proper name, and the Sydney Opera House are the two iconic landmarks that immediately come to mind whenever Sydney is mentioned. The Harbour Bridge opened in 1932 and links North Sydney with the central business district, providing great convenience to commuters, where previously only ferry crossings were available. Despite there now being a tunnel crossing and other bridges as well, the Harbour Bridge remains as popular and congested as ever. It was also the first bridge in the world to feature a bridge climb, where ordinary people can climb to the top, properly harnessed, to enjoy unsurpassed 360-degree views of the harbour (and the Opera House!).

A year later, the 1986 Asia Pacific Championships were held closer to home, in Penang. The Penang Bridge, the first link between the island and the Malayan peninsula, was completed just a few months earlier and was, at the time, the longest bridge in Asia and the third longest in the world. A publicity stunt (“Bridge on the bridge”) was planned, whereby four players set up a table and began playing, but of course, even before the first bid was made, the traffic authority shooed us away.

In 1988, the World Team Olympiad was held in Venice, a city better known for its canals than its bridges. Numerous bridges cross the multitude of canals in Venice, but only three at the time (now four) crossed the Grand Canal: the Rialto, the Accademia, the Scalzi, and later the Constitution Bridge. The Rialto, a stone bridge with shops atop it, is instantly recognizable—so much so that any film shot in Venice (including two James Bond films) invariably has a scene with the bridge in the foreground or background. It was first constructed in 1173 and rebuilt many times, with the present structure completed in 1591. Another (in)famous bridge in Venice is the Bridge of Sighs, which connects two buildings rather than land masses. Prisoners were led across it to their cells, giving them one last glimpse of Venice’s beautiful lagoon, and sighing—thus giving the bridge its name.The 2004 World Team Olympiad was held in Istanbul, the only city in the world spanning two continents. The Bosphorus Bridge, linking the European and Asian sides of the city, was completed in 1973 and was, at the time, the fourth-longest suspension bridge in the world. Istanbul is also home to the Galata Bridge, which connects the old city and the new city on the European side and is more familiar and accessible to tourists, who often walk across it. It is historically significant, symbolically connecting the old and new cultures of the city.

Most recently, Malaysia was invited to send a team to the 1st Maritime Silk Road International Tournament in Quanzhou, China. Quanzhou is not as well known as Beijing, Shanghai, or other tourist destinations, but in its heyday it was a huge metropolis and port, marking the start of the Maritime Silk Road. It is a World Heritage city, and among its many historical sites is the Luoyang Bridge, a stone bridge first constructed almost 1,000 years ago and one of the four oldest bridges in China. One unusual fact is that the bridge was almost entirely funded by local residents, as they greatly needed a crossing over the bay to save many miles of travel. It is no longer used for vehicular traffic and now serves primarily as a monument.