Hohenzollern Bridge

The Hohenzollern Bridge is a bridge crossing the river Rhine in the German city of Cologne . It crosses the Rhine at kilometre 688.5. Originally, the bridge was both a railway and street bridge, however, after its destruction in 1945 and its subsequent reconstruction, it was only accessible to rail and pedestrian traffic.It is the most heavily used railway bridge in Germany with more than 1,200 trains daily, connecting the Köln Hauptbahnhof and Köln Messe/Deutz stations.HistoryThe bridge was constructed between 1907 and 1911 after the old bridge, the Cathedral Bridge (Dombrücke), was demolished. The Cathedral Bridge was unable to handle the increasing traffic in Cologne. The new bridge was named after the House of Hohenzollern, the rulers of Prussia and German Emperors. At the time, Cologne was part of the Prussian Rhine Province.The President of the Railway Directorate Cologne, Paul von Breitenbach started planning the construction and handed over this work to his successor Rudolf Schmidt in 1906. The project was headed by the railway engineer Fritz Beermann and under his direction the designs were worked out by Friedrich Dirksen. The construction of the Hohenzollern Bridge took place from 1907 to 1911. The bridge was inaugurated on 22 May 1911 by Kaiser Wilhelm II.