Jänhijoki railway bridge is a

railway bridge A bridge is a structure built to 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, which is usually somet ...

in the village of

Minkiö railway station Minkiö railway station () 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 river Jänhijoki, and on the western side of the Jänh ...

Jokioinen Jokioinen () 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 density is . ...

municipality, in the

Tavastia Proper Tavastia () or Tavastland may refer to: Regions * Häme (Swedish: ''Tavastland'', Latin: ''Tavastia'') * Tavastia (historical province) Tavastia (; ; ; also called ''Yam'' (Ямь) or ''Yem'' (Емь) in Russian sources) is a historical prov ...

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 (distance between the rails) narrower than . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and . Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with Minimum railw ...

Jokioinen Museum Railway The Jokioinen Museum Railway () is a heritage railway running between Jokioinen and Humppila in Finland. It is located on part of the route of the last commercially operating narrow gauge railway, narrow gauge railway in Finland, the gauge Jokio ...

. 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 was built to connect

Humppila Humppila 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 (), which make it the smallest municipality in Tavastia Proper in terms of ...

with

and

Forssa Forssa is a Cities of Finland, town and municipalities of Finland, 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 Prop ...

. 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, Fuel oil, oil or, rarely, Wood fuel, wood) to heat ...

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. kaolinite, ). Most pure clay minerals are white or light-coloured, but natural clays show a variety of colours from impuriti ...

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 States of Germany, German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. Lying on the confluence of the Rhine (Lower Rhine) and the Ruhr (river), Ruhr rivers in the center of the Rhine-Ruh ...

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

Finnish Civil War The Finnish Civil War was a civil war in Finland in 1918 fought for the leadership and control of the country between Whites (Finland), White Finland and the Finnish Socialist Workers' Republic (Red Finland) during the country's transition fr ...

, 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