Jänhijoki railway bridge Jokioinen Finland

Jänhijoki railway bridge is a

railway bridge A bridge is a structure built to Span (engineering), span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or rail) without blocking the way underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, whic ...

in the village of

Minkiö railway station Minkiö railway station ( fi, Minkiön asema) is a neighborhood of the Kiipu village and a railway station at the Jokioinen Museum Railway, situated north of the Minkiö village on the northern shore of the Jänhijoki (river), river Jänhijoki, an ...

Jokioinen Jokioinen ( sv, Jockis) is a municipalities of Finland, municipality of Finland. It is located in the Tavastia Proper regions of Finland, region. The municipality has a population of () and covers an area of of which is water. The population de ...

municipality, in the

Tavastia Proper Tavastia or Tavastland may refer to: * Häme (Swedish: ''Tavastland'', Latin: ''Tavastia'') * Tavastia (historical province), a historical province of the kingdom of Sweden, located in modern-day Finland * Tavastia (constituency), formerly Tavasti ...

region of Finland. The bridge crosses the ''Jänhijoki'' river approximately south of

on the

narrow gauge A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge narrower than standard . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and . Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with tighter curves, smaller structu ...

Jokioinen Museum Railway The Jokioinen Museum Railway is located in Jokioinen, Finland. It is located on the last operating commercial narrow gauge railway in Finland, the gauge Jokioinen Railway. The museum was established on February 2, 1978, four years after the dis ...

. The bridge is the oldest railway bridge in Finland still in railway use. It was taken in service in 1898, when the original narrow gauge

Jokioinen Railway The Jokioinen Railway (JR, Jokioisten rautatie, Jokioisten-Forssan rautatie) located in Jokioinen, Finland, was opened for temporary traffic on December 9, 1898. On October 25 1899, the railway began permanent passenger and freight services. T ...

was built to connect

Humppila Humppila is a municipality of Finland. It is located in the Tavastia Proper region. The municipality has a population of (), which make it the smallest municipality in Tavastia Proper in terms of population. It covers an area of of which is wate ...

with

and

Forssa Forssa is a town and municipality of Finland. It is located almost in the centre of a triangle defined by the three largest major cities in Finland (Helsinki, Turku and Tampere), in the Tavastia Proper region, and which is crossed by Highway 2 ...

. When the narrow gauge railway was discontinued, the bridge was to be demolished and the tracks were to be lifted. The volunteers of museum railway placed a

steam locomotive A steam locomotive is a locomotive that provides the force to move itself and other vehicles by means of the expansion of steam. It is fuelled by burning combustible material (usually coal, oil or, rarely, wood) to heat water in the locomot ...

on the bridge to prevent the bridge being scrapped. Finally a six-kilometer (4 mi) long section of railway, including the bridge, was purchased from its previous owners and preserved as a museum railway. The bridge measures long. When built in 1897–1898 a total of 96 wooden poles, each long, were driven into the

clay Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4). Clays develop plasticity when wet, due to a molecular film of water surrounding the clay par ...

terrain to inforce the foundation. The bridge abutments are stone masonry—the bridge having only one span measuring between the main bearings on each bank. The steelwork for the bridge was supplied by Harkort AG from

Duisburg Duisburg () is a city in the Ruhr metropolitan area of the western German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. Lying on the confluence of the Rhine and the Ruhr rivers in the center of the Rhine-Ruhr Region, Duisburg is the 5th largest city in Nor ...

, Germany. On April 24, 1918, during the height of the

Finnish Civil War The Finnish Civil War; . Other designations: Brethren War, Citizen War, Class War, Freedom War, Red Rebellion and Revolution, . According to 1,005 interviews done by the newspaper ''Aamulehti'', the most popular names were as follows: Civil W ...

, there was an attempt to sabotage the bridge. An explosive charge was placed under the friction bearing at the north end of the bridge and detonated. The explosion caused some damage to the span, causing it to warp. The bridge was temporarily repaired, but complete repairs had to wait to be done until 1928.

Sources

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Janhijoki Railway Bridge Railway bridges in Finland Jokioinen Bridges completed in 1898 Buildings and structures in Kanta-Häme