Berlin

bridges

there are more bridges in berlin than in Venice!

Ehemalige Kaiser-Wilhelm-Brücke im Jahr 1900 (seit 1949 Liebknechtbrücke)

Berlin counts 2100 bridges around the city.

With over 180 kilometers of waterways within city limits, Berlin has more canals than any other city in the world, connected by a staggering 1,700 bridges, in comparison to 409 in Venice. The 45 km of the river Spree, which crosses the city, made it the best road to get to know Berlin.

The first bridge in Berlin was created with the establishment of the twin cities of Cölln-Berlin in the late 12th or early 13th century. The structure, which was soon replaced by the Mühlendamm, led over an arm of the Spree and connected the Cölln, which was on the Spree island, with Berlin in the marshy lowlands of the Berlin glacial valley. The ford in which it originated had an important function during this time of the German eastern settlement as the shortest link between the plateaus of the Teltow and Barnim.

In 1737, after Berlin was de-fortified, the city had 26 bridges and by 1838 their number rose to 98, including the Jungfernbrücke from 1798, the oldest surviving bridge in Berlin. The address book of 1822 contains 33 water crossings for the then city of Berlin.

With the industrial revolution and the creation of long-distance railway lines, the circular railway and canals, the number exploded. The Landwehr Canal alone, which was built between 1840 and 1850, required over thirty bridges, which, originally designed as wooden bascule bridges, have been replaced by massive structures since the 1870s. There were also park bridges such as Ludwig Ferdinand Hesse's 1838 Lion Bridge in the Great Tiergarten, the city's oldest suspension bridge. The bridges had an important function in Berlin. On December 30, 1875, a contract between the city and the Prussian state created the bridge building administration of Berlin, which existed continuously as city or state administration. At the beginning of the 20th century, the number of bridges in today's Berlin urban area increased due to construction measures such as the Teltow Canal, which opened in 1906, or as a result of the elevation of railway lines. A number of new bridges were added later with the construction of the motorways. The longest bridge in Berlin is the Rudolf-Wissell-Bridge on the federal motorway 100 (city ring), which spans the Spree, Spreeaue and the Charlottenburg lock with a length of 930 meters.

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At the end of the war II in 1945, 220 of the most important road bridges, particularly during the battle for Berlin, 127 were destroyed, 122 of them over watercourses and five over railways. The Spandau Charlottenbrücke remained the only crossing over the Havel, the Freybrücke was destroyed and the Stößenseebrücke was preserved. The Weidendammerbrücke remained undamaged from the Spree bridges, the Schilling and Kronprinzen bridges damaged and still usable. 38 of the 41 Teltow Canal Bridge were destroyed. This also interrupted the supply lines.

Temporary bridges were built primarily for their own logistics by Soviet pioneers, and from July 1945 by the Western Allies in their sectors. The maintenance of these "military" bridges has already been entrusted to the municipal bridge construction office. As a result of this situation, the question of ownership between the city and Teltow Canal bridges took a back seat. In May 1946 there were 55 emergency bridges. A lack of material made itself felt as limiting for the construction. Linseed oil was used as food instead of red lead.

Source: Wikipedia