The Hindenburg Bridge (german: Hindenburgbrücke) was a railway bridge over the
Rhine
), Surselva, Graubünden, Switzerland
, source1_coordinates=
, source1_elevation =
, source2 = Rein Posteriur/Hinterrhein
, source2_location = Paradies Glacier, Graubünden, Switzerland
, source2_coordinates=
, so ...
between
Rüdesheim in the
German state of
Hesse
Hesse (, , ) or Hessia (, ; german: Hessen ), officially the State of Hessen (german: links=no, Land Hessen), is a States of Germany, state in Germany. Its capital city is Wiesbaden, and the largest urban area is Frankfurt. Two other major histor ...
and
Bingen-Kempten state of
Rhineland-Palatinate
Rhineland-Palatinate ( , ; german: link=no, Rheinland-Pfalz ; lb, Rheinland-Pfalz ; pfl, Rhoilond-Palz) is a western state of Germany. It covers and has about 4.05 million residents. It is the ninth largest and sixth most populous of the ...
, named in 1918 after
Field Marshal
Field marshal (or field-marshal, abbreviated as FM) is the most senior military rank, ordinarily senior to the general officer ranks. Usually, it is the highest rank in an army and as such few persons are appointed to it. It is considered as ...
Paul von Hindenburg
Paul Ludwig Hans Anton von Beneckendorff und von Hindenburg (; abbreviated ; 2 October 1847 – 2 August 1934) was a German field marshal and statesman who led the Imperial German Army during World War I and later became President of Germany fro ...
, later
German President
The president of Germany, officially the Federal President of the Federal Republic of Germany (german: link=no, Bundespräsident der Bundesrepublik Deutschland),The official title within Germany is ', with ' being added in international corres ...
. The bridge was put in service in 1915, destroyed in 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 ...
and never rebuilt.
Since 2002 the remains of the Hindenburg bridge has been the easternmost point of the
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...
World Heritage Site
A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for h ...
of the
Upper Middle Rhine Valley
The Rhine Gorge is a popular name for the Upper Middle Rhine Valley, a 65 km section of the Rhine between Koblenz and Rüdesheim in the states of Rhineland-Palatinate and Hesse in Germany. It was added to the UNESCO list of World Heritage S ...
.
Bingerbrück–Rüdesheim train ferry
The bridge was preceded by the
Bingerbrück–Rüdesheim train ferry The Bingerbrück–Rüdesheim train ferry was operated as a train ferry from 1862 to 1900 across the Rhine between Bingerbrück now in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate and Rüdesheim now in the state of Hesse.
On 15 December 1859 was the ...
, opened in November 1861, making the first connection between the
Nassau Rhine Railway
The East Rhine Railway (German: ''Rechte Rheinstrecke'', literally 'right (of the) Rhine railway') is a major, double-track, electrified railway line, running along the right bank of the Rhine from Cologne to Wiesbaden. The -long line forms two D ...
of the
Nassau State Railway The Nassau State Railway (german: Nassauische Staatsbahn) took over the privately built railway lines on the Rhine and Lahn rivers in the Duchy of Nassau from the ''Nassau Rhine and Lahn Railway Company'' in 1861 and extended them further. It was ta ...
(german: Nassauische Staatsbahn) and the
Nahe Valley Railway
The Nahe Valley Railway (german: Nahetalbahn) is a two-track, partially electrified main line railway in the German states of Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland, which runs for almost 100 kilometres along the Nahe (Rhine), Nahe. It was built by the ...
of the ''Rhine-Nahe Railway Company'' (''Rhein-Nahe-Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft''). This created a freight connection between the
Rhine-Main and
Saar areas and opened a new market for Saar coal. The freight ferry carried wagons until 1900. The passenger ferry was operated by
Prussian State Railways until July 1907. After that passengers were able to use the tram to Bingen and the Bingen–Rüdesheim ferry.
Planning and building
In 1900 the Prussian Minister of Public Works in the
Prussian House of Representatives
The Prussian House of Representatives (german: Preußisches Abgeordnetenhaus) was the lower chamber of the Landtag of Prussia (german: Preußischer Landtag), the parliament of Prussia from 1850 to 1918. Together with the upper house, the House of ...
spoke in favour of the construction of a bridge over the Rhine at Bingen. Studies by the Prussian State Railways initially favoured a location at Bingerbrück because the current around the
Binger Loch
Binger is a German and Danish surname. Notable people with the surname include:
* Carl Binger (1889–1976), American psychiatrist
* James H. Binger (1916–2004), American lawyer and chief executive
*Louis Gustave Binger (1856–1936), French exp ...
(“Bingen hole”, a narrow passage created through a reef in the Rhine in the 17th century and subsequently widened) made a bridge unfeasible in Bingen. Therefore, a site for the bridge was selected upstream of the Rhine island of Rüdesheim Aue at Rhine km mark 525.26, where the river is about 900 metres wide. Debates about whether to construct a railway bridge, a road bridge or a combined bridge continued for over a decade in the
Reichstag until funds for the construction of a railway bridge were approved in March 1913. In this case, military concerns were decisive. The new Rhine bridge was a
strategic railway connecting the
Right Rhine Railway to the Nahe Valley Railway and the
Glan Valley Railway
The Glan Valley Railway (german: Glantalbahn) is a non-electrified line along the Glan river, in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate. It consists of the Glan-Münchweiler–Altenglan section, which was built as part of the Landstuhl–Kuse ...
, thus creating another German military railway to the French border. The
German Empire
The German Empire (),Herbert Tuttle wrote in September 1881 that the term "Reich" does not literally connote an empire as has been commonly assumed by English-speaking people. The term literally denotes an empire – particularly a hereditary ...
provided over 75% of the cost of the bridge and access lines, the rest was funded by the participating states of
Prussia
Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an em ...
and the
Grand Duchy of Hesse
The Grand Duchy of Hesse and by Rhine (german: link=no, Großherzogtum Hessen und bei Rhein) was a grand duchy in western Germany that existed from 1806 to 1918. The Grand Duchy originally formed from the Landgraviate of Hesse-Darmstadt in 1806 ...
. The connecting curve was from the bridge towards Geisenheim and on to Wiesbaden was not eligible for imperial funding, because military transport would apparently follow the Rhine from
Oberlahnstein, using the
Lahntal railway
The Lahntal railway (German: ''Lahntalbahn'') is a railway line between Niederlahnstein in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate to Wetzlar in Hesse. Its western terminus was originally in Oberlahnstein. Trains now mostly operate between Kob ...
.
[Scharf (2003), p. 157] Two similar railway bridges were also built across the Rhine mostly for military reasons: the
Crown Prince William Bridge at
Urmitz and the
Ludendorff Bridge at
Remagen.
The construction of the Hindenburg Bridge began in June 1913 and it was opened on 16 August 1915. At the start of construction many foreign laborers, mostly Italians, were employed on the work. After a short interruption of construction at the beginning of 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 ...
work continued with the use of Russian prisoners of war.
[Scharf (2003), p. 156]
The bridge had a total length of 1,175 metres and consisted of two sets of arches each side of the main 741 m long steel bridge. The steel section consisted of two
arches and five spans of parallel
trusses, with the tracks mounted on the lower trusses. The steel arches were each 169.4 m long and were unusually high. One of the truss spans was 94.2 m long and the other four were 77.0 m long.
[ The double track bridge had a total width of 12 m of which 7 m was used for rail tracks. On both sides there was a footpath.
The bridge together with connecting lines included a total of 11 kilometres of double track main lines. In the north, the bridge connected to two connecting curves to the Right Rhine Railway. On the south (left side) of the Rhine, the line continued south from ]Büdesheim
Büdesheim is a municipality in the district of Bitburg-Prüm, in Rhineland-Palatinate, western Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in ...
to Sarmsheim on the Bingerbrück–Bad Kreuznach line. Another curve connected with the Mainz–Bad Kreuznach line in Ockenheim station. In 1944, 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 ...
, another connection curve was built from Ockenheim station to a single-track branch line to the Left Rhine line towards Bingen. This curve was intended to make the line usable even if the bridge was destroyed.
Operations
In the First World War the bridge was used almost exclusively for the supply of German troops on the Western Front Western Front or West Front may refer to:
Military frontiers
*Western Front (World War I), a military frontier to the west of Germany
*Western Front (World War II), a military frontier to the west of Germany
*Western Front (Russian Empire), a majo ...
. After the war, the left bank of the Rhine and a bridgehead at Wiesbaden
Wiesbaden () is a city in central western Germany and the capital of the state of Hesse. , it had 290,955 inhabitants, plus approximately 21,000 United States citizens (mostly associated with the United States Army). The Wiesbaden urban area ...
was occupied by French troops. The occupation forces seized the bridge and converted it to allow carts and cars to use it. In addition, the bridge was used by military trains and from the end of 1919 by civilian freight trains at night and on a small scale. From October 1920 the bridge was available for use by German civilians, on payment of a high bridge toll (four marks after the hyperinflation culminating in 1923), which led to years of protests from the local business community.
After the withdrawal of the occupation troops, Deutsche Reichsbahn (German State Railways) took over passenger rail services over the bridge again in July 1930. In the summer 1938 timetable eleven weekday passenger services and 15 services on Sundays operated, mainly on the Wiesbaden–Bad Münster am Stein
Bad or BAD may refer to:
Common meanings
*Evil, the opposite of moral good
* Erroneous, inaccurate or incorrect
*Unhealthy, or counter to well-being
*Antagonist, the threat or obstacle of moral good
Acronyms
* BAD-2, a Soviet armored trolley ...
route. During the Second World War, the bridge was used to overcome disruption on the two Rhine lines.
Destruction
From August 1942 the bridge was the target of several air raids. On 13 January 1945, the spans of the bridge were destroyed. The final destruction of the Hindenburg Bridge was carried out on 15 March 1945 by pioneers of the Wehrmacht
The ''Wehrmacht'' (, ) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the ''Heer'' (army), the ''Kriegsmarine'' (navy) and the ''Luftwaffe'' (air force). The designation "''Wehrmacht''" replaced the previous ...
in order to impede the advance of the United States armed forces
The United States Armed Forces are the military forces of the United States. The armed forces consists of six service branches: the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, Space Force, and Coast Guard. The president of the United States is the ...
.
In the summer of 1945, the wreckage of the bridge was cleared from the main navigation channel of the Rhine and in 1948 the bridge's superstructure on the river banks was demolished. Reconstruction of the bridge was discussed until the 1950s. The priority of Deutsche Bundesbahn (German Federal Railways) was to rebuild the Emperor Bridge in Mainz and from 1954 it had no interest in another bridge over the Rhine.[Scharf (2003), p. 158f] In 1970 the abutments were demolished to improve road safety. From time to time the possibility of rebuilding the bridge is discussed.
Notes
References
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*
External links
*
{{Coord, 49, 58, 26, N, 7, 56, 32, E, region:DE-RP_type:landmark, display=title
Railway bridges in Germany
Bridges over the Rhine
Bridges completed in 1915
Buildings and structures in Rheingau-Taunus-Kreis
Buildings and structures in Mainz-Bingen
Truss bridges
Railway lines in Hesse
Railway lines in Rhineland-Palatinate
Paul von Hindenburg
Former toll bridges in Germany
Railway lines opened in 1915
1915 establishments in Germany