The El Ferdan Railway Bridge is a

swing bridge A swing bridge (or swing span bridge) is a movable bridge that has as its primary structural support a vertical locating pin and support ring, usually at or near to its center of gravity, about which the swing span (turning span) can then pi ...

that spans the western shipping lane of the

Suez Canal The Suez Canal ( arz, قَنَاةُ ٱلسُّوَيْسِ, ') is an artificial sea-level waterway in Egypt, connecting the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea through the Isthmus of Suez and dividing Africa and Asia. The long canal is a popular ...

near

Ismailia Ismailia ( ar, الإسماعيلية ', ) is a city in north-eastern Egypt. Situated on the west bank of the Suez Canal, it is the capital of the Ismailia Governorate. The city has a population of 1,406,699 (or approximately 750,000, includi ...

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...

. It is the longest swing bridge in the world, with a span of . The bridge is no longer functional due to the expansion of the Suez Canal completed in 2015 which added a parallel shipping lane just east of the existing bridge, cutting off the railway into Sinai. As of 2021 a second swing bridge spanning the new eastern shipping lane is under construction. When completed, service on the bridge can resume.

History

The first El Ferdan Railway Bridge over the Suez Canal was completed in April 1918 for the Sinai Military Railway.Hughes, 1981, page 17 It was considered a hindrance to shipping so after the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

it was removed. A steel swing bridge was built in 1942 (during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

), but this was damaged by a steamship and removed in 1947. A double swing bridge was completed in 1954 but the 1956 Anglo-Franco-Israeli war with Egypt severed rail traffic across the canal for a third time. A replacement bridge was completed in 1963 which was destroyed in 1967 in the

Six-Day War The Six-Day War (, ; ar, النكسة, , or ) or June War, also known as the 1967 Arab–Israeli War or Third Arab–Israeli War, was fought between Israel and a coalition of Arab world, Arab states (primarily United Arab Republic, Egypt, S ...

by the Egyptian engineering General

Ahmed Hamdy Ahmed Hamdi (20 May 1929 – 14 October 1973) was an Egyptian engineer and a general of the 3rd Army of Egypt during the October War. He was killed while crossing the Suez Canal with his soldiers and was awarded the Sinai star posthumousl ...

. In July 1996, a consortium led by German

Krupp The Krupp family (see pronunciation), a prominent 400-year-old German dynasty from Essen, is notable for its production of steel, artillery, ammunition and other armaments. The family business, known as Friedrich Krupp AG (Friedrich Krup ...

was awarded a $US70 million contract to design and build the bridge, raised to $80 million to increase the main span from . The current bridge was constructed in 2001.

Significant developments in the region

The El Ferdan Railway Bridge was part of a major drive to develop the areas surrounding the

, including other projects such as the

Ahmed Hamdi Tunnel The Ahmed Hamdi Tunnel is a 1640 metre long car tunnel under the Suez Canal, at Shallufa. The tunnel is named after Ahmed Hamdi, an Egyptian engineer and general killed in action during the October War. It has two lanes of traffic, one in eac ...

under the Suez Canal (completed in 1983), the

Suez Canal overhead powerline crossing The Suez Canal overhead powerline crossing is a major electrical power line built across the Suez Canal in 1998, located near Suez, Egypt. It is designed for two 500 kV circuits. Because the required clearance over the Suez Canal is , the overhe ...

, and the

Suez Canal Bridge The Suez Canal Bridge, also known as the Egyptian–Japanese Friendship Bridge, Al Salam Bridge, Al Salam Peace Bridge or Mubarak Peace Bridge, is a road bridge crossing the Suez Canal at El-Qantara, whose name means "the bridge" in Egyptian Ar ...

(completed in 2001, roughly 12 miles north of the El Ferdan Railway Bridge).

The bridge today: plans for upgrading tracks and building a new bridge

The parallel

New Suez Canal The Suez Canal Corridor Area Project ( ar, مشروع تطوير محور قناة السويس) is a megaproject in Egypt that was launched on 5 August 2014 by President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and completed in 2015. The project aimed to increas ...

was excavated in 2014/2015 a short distance to the east but without a bridge spanning it. Without a second bridge, the railway across El Ferdan bridge is a dead end. Initially, a plan was in place to construct a new railway tunnel in the Ismailia region (and another near Port Said is planned) in order to reconnect the

Sinai Sinai commonly refers to: * Sinai Peninsula, Egypt * Mount Sinai, a mountain in the Sinai Peninsula, Egypt * Biblical Mount Sinai, the site in the Bible where Moses received the Law of God Sinai may also refer to: * Sinai, South Dakota, a place ...

to the rest of Egypt’s rail network. However, Kamel ElWazir, who was at that time the head of the

Egyptian Armed Forces The Egyptian Armed Forces ( arz, القُوّات المُسَلَّحَة المِصْرِيَّة, alquwwat almusalahat almisria) are the military forces of the Arab Republic of Egypt. They consist of the Egyptian Army, Egyptian Navy, Egypti ...

- Engineering corps, announced that due to high costs the plans for a new tunnel would be scrapped and that the Engineering Corps would seek other alternatives including moving the existing bridge to a narrow section of the canal at

El-Qantara El Qantara ( ar, القنطرة, al qantara, the bridge) is a northeastern Egyptian city on both sides of the Suez Canal, in the Egyptian governorate of Ismailia, northeast of Cairo and south of Port Said. The two parts of the city are connec ...

. However, the final decision was made in 2017 to keep the existing bridge at its current location and build a new

double-track railway A double-track railway usually involves running one track in each direction, compared to a single-track railway where trains in both directions share the same track. Overview In the earliest days of railways in the United Kingdom, most lin ...

bridge (based on the current El Ferdan bridge design) across the new, eastern shipping lane several hundred meters to the east. The existing bridge over the western shipping lane would be converted from a

single-track railway A single-track railway is a railway where trains traveling in both directions share the same track. Single track is usually found on lesser-used rail lines, often branch lines, where the level of traffic is not high enough to justify the co ...

to a

.In Arabic: طول يصل 44 كم.. إعادة تنفيذ مشروع خط سكة حديد «الفردان - بورسعيد - بئر العبد». Sada ElBalad. Retrieved from ''www.elbalad.news''
''tr. "With a length of 44 km .. Re-implementation of the railway project «Fardan - Port Said - Bir al-Abd»"''
July 2017

References

External links

* {{Suez Canal Railway bridges in Egypt Suez Canal Bridges completed in 2001 Swing bridges