Müngsten Bridge
Originally the bridge was named the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Brücke (Emperor Wilhelm Bridge) to honour Emperor Wilhelm I. After the end of the monarchy the bridge was renamed after the nearby settlement of Müngsten, which is close to the city limits of Solingen, Remscheid and Wuppertal. Today, the settlement no longer exists, so Müngsten is simply a landmark.
History
The first plans for a bridge connecting the cities of Remscheid and Solingen go back as far as 1889. The Prussian Parliament approved the 5 million Marks required to build the bridge in 1890. Preparatory work began in 1893, first breaking of the earth was on 26 February 1894, and the bridge was finished in 1897. Anton von Rieppel (1852 – 1926), an architect and engineer, was in charge of the project. A memorial plaque at the foot of the bridge reminds one of his efforts. The opening of the bridge shrank the distance by rail between the cities of Remscheid and Solingen from 44 km (27 mi) to 8 km (5.0 mi).
The bridge's official inauguration celebration took place on 15 July 1897. Emperor Wilhelm II did not attend the ceremony in person. Prince Friedrich Leopold of Prussia attended the festivities instead. Emperor Wilhelm II visited the bridge two years later, on 12 August 1899.
Design
The overall length of the structure is 465 m (1,526 ft). The main arch has a span of 170 m (560 ft) with trestle bridge sections either side of it supported by 15 m (49 ft) wide columns with a maximum height of 69 m (226 ft).
A total of 1,400 kg (3,100 lb) of dynamite and 1,500 kg (3,300 lb) of black powder were needed during construction of the foundations, and around of 5,000 tonnes (4,900 long tons; 5,500 short tons) of iron and steel were used in the bridge's construction, with 950,000 rivets holding the structure together.
Originally, the bridge was planned to be single-track. However, high future traffic growth projections led to the redesign as a dual-track bridge.
See also
References
- ^ Shklovsky, Yuhym (2008). Brücken in Wuppertal [Bridges in Wuppertal] (in German). Verlag Regine Dehnel. pp. 105–106. ISBN 978-3-9811352-5-1. Retrieved 22 January 2025.
- ^ "Structural Analysis | Müngsten Viaduct". Dlubal Software. 26 August 2020. Retrieved 22 January 2025.
- ^ Pottgießer, Hans (1985). Eisenbahnbrücken aus zwei Jahrhunderten [Railway bridges from two centuries] (in German). Basel: Birkhäuser Verlag. pp. 255–258. ISBN 978-3-0348-6663-7.
- ^ Kift, Roy (2006). The Wupper Valley. Essen: Klartext Verlag. pp. 140–142. ISBN 3-89861-520-0. Retrieved 22 January 2025.
- ^ "Transdev Rhein-Ruhr wins S7 operating contract". Railway Gazette International. 20 October 2022. Retrieved 22 January 2025.
- ^ "Neue Züge für RE47 sind bestellt" [New trains for RE47 are ordered]. Rheinische Post (in German). 7 December 2024. Retrieved 22 January 2025.
External links
- "Müngstener Talbrücke". brueckenweb.de (in German).
- Müngsten Bridge on bridge-info.org
- Müngsten Viaduct at Structurae
- Anton Rieppel: Die Thalbrücke bei Müngsten bahnhof-lette.de