As poet Vu Dinh Van once described, the ferry was the place where “the frontlines and the rear exchanged hands.” This area was also a strategic target for US bombings, aiming to choke off the supply route to the South. In 1971, to maintain traffic flow, two ferry crossings were operated on the Long Dai River: Quan Hau Ferry and Long Dai Ferry. In 2015, the Truong Son Martyrs Memorial at Long Dai Ferry was inaugurated.
Standing on this side of the bridge, one can clearly see the Truong Son Range in the distance, the Long Dai Bridge over the Long Dai River, and the uninterrupted eastern branch of Truong Son Trail. It feels as if the images from over half a century ago come back to life—the river crossings in the dead of night by troops supporting the South, the sleepless nights defending Long Dai Ferry by young male and female volunteers. The footsteps of a time when people "cut through Truong Son mountain range to save the country" still seem to echo.
Once a steel rampart of the northern front, Long Dai is now a “red destination” for those tracing the path of national memory. What was once one of the remotest places in Quang Binh has now been dubbed a “miniature Ha Long,” as the over-100-kilometre-long Long Dai River winds gracefully through the mountains, featuring more than 100 large and small waterfalls and rapids.
Less than 30 kilometres from Long Dai Ferry lies the turquoise Mooc Spring, the magnificent stalactites of Paradise Cave, and a little further afield, the world natural heritage site of Phong Nha – Ke Bang. The route from Long Dai to Dong Hoi can include a stop at the memorial house dedicated to General Vo Nguyen Giap in Loc Thuy Commune (Le Thuy District), before arriving in Dong Hoi to visit the statue of Heroic Mother Suot by the Nhat Le River.
Last year, a new bridge was completed next to the Long Dai railway bridge. The North–South Expressway section passing through Quang Binh is also nearing completion. These are the fruits of peace—the results of those years when Long Dai bore the brunt of bombings, of determined crossings in pursuit of the South ahead.
Now only an old bridge remains beside a newly built one. The newly expanded branch of the Truong Son Trail now stretches wide, a smooth route cutting through the great forest, appearing as calm and uninterrupted as if decades of bombs and separation between North and South of the country had never happened.
