The Hardbrücke (

Swiss German Swiss German (Standard German: , ,Because of the many different dialects, and because there is no #Conventions, defined orthography for any of them, many different spellings can be found. and others; ) is any of the Alemannic German, Alemannic ...

: ''Hardbrugg'') is a long

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

and important north–south connection in the

Swiss Swiss most commonly refers to: * the adjectival form of Switzerland * Swiss people Swiss may also refer to: Places * Swiss, Missouri * Swiss, North Carolina * Swiss, West Virginia * Swiss, Wisconsin Other uses * Swiss Café, an old café located ...

city of

Zürich Zurich (; ) is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich. , the municipality had 448,664 inhabitants. The ...

. As of 2009, 70,000 vehicles use the bridge daily. From north to south, the bridge crosses ''Wipkingerplatz'' in the

Wipkingen Wipkingen is a quarter in the district 10 in Zürich. It was formerly a municipality of its own, having been incorporated into Zürich in 1893. The quarter has a population of 15,446 distributed on an area of 2.11 km². Zentrum für M ...

quarter, the River Limmat, a couple of roads of the ''

Industriequartier Industriequartier is a district in the Swiss city of Zurich. Geography The district comprises the quarters Gewerbeschule and Escher Wyss. Together with today's District 4, the district formed the formerly separate municipality of Aussersih ...

'' (including '' Escher-Wyss-Platz''), the

railway track Railway track ( and UIC terminology) or railroad track (), also known as permanent way () or "P way" ( and Indian English), is the structure on a railway or railroad consisting of the rails, fasteners, sleepers ( railroad ties in American ...

s of the Zürich–Baden and ''

Käferberg Käferberg (el. ) and Waidberg (el. ) are the summits of a wooded range of hills overlooking the inner city of Zürich, Zürichsee, Albis chain and Uetliberg, as well as the Limmat Valley and the Zürcher Unterland in Switzerland. Geo ...

'' lines (including a

railway station Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...

), numerous holding tracks of the track field preceding , the former

goods station A goods station (also known as a goods yard or goods depot) or freight station is, in the widest sense, a railway station where, either exclusively or predominantly, goods (or freight), such as merchandise, parcels, and manufactured items, are lo ...

(mostly removed) and a road (''Hohlstrasse'') in Zürich's

District 4 District 4 can refer to: * District 4, Düsseldorf, in Germany * District 4, Grand Bassa County, in Liberia * District 4 (Ho Chi Minh City), in Vietnam * District 4 (New York City Council), in the United States * IV District, Turku, in Finland *Aus ...

. Over the Limmat, the Hardbrücke forms an upper level to the lower level ''Wipkingerbrücke'', a road/tramway bridge. There are several exit and entrance ramps that link the bridge to the streets below. Some junctions on the bridge have

traffic light Traffic lights, traffic signals, or stoplights – also known as robots in South Africa, Zambia, and Namibia – are signaling devices positioned at intersection (road), road intersections, pedestrian crossings, and other locations in order t ...

Name

The bridge () gets its name from the German

toponym Toponymy, toponymics, or toponomastics is the study of ''wikt:toponym, toponyms'' (proper names of places, also known as place names and geographic names), including their origins, meanings, usage, and types. ''Toponym'' is the general term for ...

(''Flurname'') ''Hard'', meaning hill or forest, used for the area where the bridge is located. ''Hard'' is part of the name of several nearby places, such as ''Hardplatz'', ''Hardturm'', ''Hardau'', ''Herdernstrasse'' (plural of ''Hard''), or the ''

Hard Hard means something that is difficult to do. It may also refer to: * Hardness, resistance of physical materials to deformation or fracture * Hard water, water with high mineral content Arts and entertainment * Hard (TV series), ''Hard'' (TV ser ...

'' quarter.

History

The first ''Hardbrücke'', a

truss bridge A truss bridge is a bridge whose load-bearing superstructure is composed of a truss, a structure of connected elements, usually forming triangular units. The connected elements, typically straight, may be stressed from tension, compression, or ...

linking ''Hardplatz'' with ''Pfingstweidstrasse'', was built in 1897. Construction of the current

girder bridge A girder bridge is a bridge that uses girders as the means of supporting its deck. The two most common types of modern steel girder bridges are plate and box. The term "girder" is often used interchangeably with "beam" in reference to bridge d ...

commenced in 1969 and it was opened in 1972. It was built as a preliminary traffic solution as discussions for an expressway through Zürich's city center went on. The Y-shaped core section of this expressway () was never built. Until the opening of the

Uetliberg Tunnel __NOTOC__ The Uetliberg (also known as Üetliberg) is a mountain in the Swiss plateau, part of the Albis chain, rising to . The mountain offers a panoramic view of the entire city of Zürich (to the northeast of its summit), Zürichberg and ...

and the highway bypassing Zürich to the West (''Westumfahrung'') in 2009, all north-/south-bound through traffic took the route over the ''Hardbrücke''. The bridge, which remains an important innercity route up to this day, underwent a major refurbishment between 2009 and 2011. Between 2015 and 2017,

tramway tracks Tramway track is used on tramways or light rail operations. As with standard rail tracks, tram tracks have two parallel steel rails, the distance between the heads of the rails being the track gauge. When there is no need for pedestrians or ...

were installed on the section crossing the railway tracks, allowing the extension of

Zürich tram Trams make an important contribution to public transport in the city of Zurich in Switzerland. The tram network serves most city neighbourhoods, and is the backbone of public transport within the city, albeit supplemented by the inner sections of ...

route 8 from ''Hardplatz'' to ''Hardturm'' on the other side of the tracks. A further, northward extension of the tramway tracks over ''Hardbrücke'' and up to ''Bucheggplatz'' and ''Milchbuck'', which would have served two new tram routes (''Rosengartentram''), was rejected by a referendum in 2020.https://www.srf.ch/news/schweiz/abstimmungen-oberrubrik/abstimmungen/kanton-zuerich-stimmvolk-stoppt-milliardentunnel

Railway station

Since 1982, there is a

below the ''Hardbrücke'', which is named after the bridge. The station is located on the Zürich–Baden and Zürich–Winterthur (''Käferberg Tunnel'' variant) lines. It is served by regional trains (

S-Bahn The S-Bahn ( , ), , is a hybrid urban rail, urban–suburban rail system serving a metropolitan region predominantly in German language, German-speaking countries. Some of the larger S-Bahn systems provide service similar to rapid transit syst ...

) of

Zürich S-Bahn The Zurich S-Bahn () system is a network of rail lines that has been incrementally expanded to cover the ZVV area, which comprises the entire canton of Zurich and portions of neighbouring cantons (Aargau, Glarus, Schaffhausen, Schwyz, ...

. The station is one of the busiest in the Zürich S-Bahn network. In terms of passenger numbers, it is ranked 11th in the country (as of 2018). The station can be accessed either from the bridge or via an

underpass A subway, also known as an underpass, is a grade-separated pedestrian crossing running underneath a road or railway in order to entirely separate pedestrians and cyclists from motor or train traffic. Terminology In the United States, as ...

. There are stairs and

elevators An elevator (American English) or lift (English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English) is a machine that vertically transports people or freight between levels. They are typically powered by electric motors that drive tracti ...

in both cases.

Traffic

The bridge is used both by

private Private or privates may refer to: Music * "In Private", by Dusty Springfield from the 1990 album ''Reputation'' * Private (band), a Denmark-based band * "Private" (Ryōko Hirosue song), from the 1999 album ''Private'', written and also recorded ...

and

public transport Public transport (also known as public transit, mass transit, or simply transit) are forms of transport available to the general public. It typically uses a fixed schedule, route and charges a fixed fare. There is no rigid definition of whic ...

. Above the railway station, there is a

tram A tram (also known as a streetcar or trolley in Canada and the United States) is an urban rail transit in which Rolling stock, vehicles, whether individual railcars or multiple-unit trains, run on tramway tracks on urban public streets; some ...

and bus stop (called ''Bahnhof Hardbrücke'') served by VBZ

route 8,

trolleybus A trolleybus (also known as trolley bus, trolley coach, trackless trolley, trackless tramin the 1910s and 1920sJoyce, J.; King, J. S.; and Newman, A. G. (1986). ''British Trolleybus Systems'', pp. 9, 12. London: Ian Allan Publishing. .or troll ...

routes 33 and 72, and

bus A bus (contracted from omnibus, with variants multibus, motorbus, autobus, etc.) is a motor vehicle that carries significantly more passengers than an average car or van, but fewer than the average rail transport. It is most commonly used ...

route 83. The tram route leaves the bridge just north of the stop, while all trolleybus and bus routes continue northward on the bridge. Additional bus stops on the ''Hardbrücke'' exist at ''Schiffbau'' and ''Escher-Wyss-Platz''. The bridge is also a main bike route on the section crossing the railway tracks. Pedestrians and cyclists share the sidewalks on either side of the bridge, which are protected by a concrete wall from car traffic.

Gallery

File:Hardbrücke Juni 2010.jpg, ''Hardbrücke'' during its 2010 refurbishment File:Zürich Hardbrücke Tram.jpg, Zürich tram below ''Hardbrücke'' File:Hardbrücke (22340560486).jpg, ''Hardbrücke'' (above) and ''Wipkingerbrücke'' (below) crossing the River Limmat File:Hardbrücke - September 2014 - Bild 1.JPG, Traffic (2014) File:I want to ride my bicycle (14159025411).jpg, ''Hardbrücke'' is also a bike route File:Hardbrücke (16211064497).jpg, Sidewalk on the bridge File:Aerial view of Zurich.JPG, Aerial view File:View from Hardbrücke.jpg, View from ''Hardbrücke'' over track field File:Hardbrücke.jpg, Railway station under the bridge, and tram/bus stop on the bridge

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hardbrucke Bridges in Zurich Road bridges in Switzerland