Brücke der Solidarität

The Bridge of Solidarity is a bridge across the Rhine between the boroughs of Rheinhausen and Hochfeld in the city of Duisburg.Bridge historyConstruction on the bridge's predecessor, the Admiral-Graf-Spee-Brücke, was started on 12 January 1934 and the bridge was inaugurated on 22 May 1936 by then-minister Joseph Goebbels. Total building cost was 6.75 million Reichsmark. Like the Duisburg-Hochfeld Railway Bridge, the bridge was blown up by the retreating Wehrmacht on 4 March 1945. Only the floodplain bridge on the left bank of the Rhine remained.In July 1945, a new bridge was already under construction and the bridge was opened to traffic on 3 July 1950. Following a recommendation of Krupp Stahlbau Rheinhausen, the new bridge was built as a Tied-arch bridge, the largest of its kind in Germany at the time with a span of 255.9 metres. While the previous bridge had four lanes, the British Military government insisted on a three-lane bridge. The bridge was thoroughly renovated in the early 1990s, especially the old floodplain bridge parts. Since a few years, it is possible to adjust the direction of the lanes to current demand by a traffic light system.Technical data Type of construction: Tied-arch bridge Arch width: 255.91 m Pfeilhöhe 35.5 m Versteifungsträger: einwandig genietete Blechträger mit 4320 mm Stegblechhöhe Abstand der Versteifungsträger: 12.4 m Steghöhe des Hutquerschnitts: 1.7 m am Scheitel, 2.10 m am Kämpfer Carriageway width: 9 m (3 lanes at 3 m each) Cycle lane width: 1.1 m Footpath width: 1.8 m