Blue Wonder

51.05337313.810047Koordinaten: 51 ° 3 ' 12.1 " N, 13 ° 48' 36.2 " E

F1

Elbe

" Blue Wonder " is the name of the volksmundliche Loschwitzer bridge in Dresden ( until 1912: " King Albert Bridge"). This Dresden Elbe bridge connects the villas or residential areas Blasewitz (left ) and Losch joke ( right bank) together.

The Surprise was completed in 1893 as the fifth Dresden Elbe bridge. Today, it is among them the one with the most old buildings because they suffered war damage was neither the only nor new or rebuilt for other reasons. She is one of the landmarks of the city and in 2007 was the award for Historical landmark of civil engineering in Germany nominated.

History

Prehistory

Towards the end of the 19th century sought to neighboring communities, but especially those in the trade of the right bank of the Elbe and the villa owners of Loschwitz to a better connection to Dresden and the surrounding communities linkselbischen. Two 1874 projected by private individuals bridges could not be realized because they could not afford the construction costs. Nine years later, three drafts were in the discussion. The Queen Mary's hut struck an iron bridge with parabolic carriers and five piers ago, engineer clit foresaw a suspension bridge and a third controlled the design Engineers Dr. Proell and Schwarowsky at. On October 15, 1884, the Parliament approved a state aid of 400 000 marks and on September 14, 1886, constituted a bridge association to advance the project. This asked the company Felten & Guilleaume with the development of a further draft.

Felten & Guilleaume proposed a chain suspension bridge and this design fulfilled - in contrast to the design of the Queen Mary's Cottage - the demand of the shipper associations for a waiver of piers in the river bed. In contrast, remained a condition of the Royal Water Construction Authority, who presided Claus Koepcke, unfulfilled, namely: " statically determined structures of iron are for the three main openings to choose. " At the instigation of the water Baudirektion Marienhütte now modified their design to a " stiffened suspension bridge " after Koepcke system. This design gave the bridge federation in 1887 in a petition to the Saxon Landtag.

Construction

Construction of the bridge began on September 1, 1891 by Benno Hubel, Claus Koepcke under the supervision of Hans Manfred Krüger. The steel components of the bridge were built in the Queen Mary's cottage in Cainsdorf in Zwickau, which operated until its bankruptcy in 2005 as a Saxon plant and mechanical engineering GmbH (SAM ). After less than two years of 2.25 million gold marks expensive construction was completed. The opening ceremony took place on 15 July 1893. On the same day was the only nine days earlier furnished first electric tram in Dresden, from Castle Square to the Schiller Platz, extended over the bridge to Körnerplatz in Loschwitz.

Use and Care

For the use of the bridge had to be paid to inflation in 1923 a bridge money:

• 3 Pfennig for pedestrians, tram passengers, cyclists and motorists
• 10 Pfennig cost draft animals
• 20 Pfennig for motor vehicles

Subscriptions and special arrangements were possible. In a short time a surplus accumulated, which was used among other things for the retaining wall in the Loschwitzer Schiller Street. It was called then in the vernacular " Zwee - Pfeng - wall."

In 1935, the bridge was rebuilt in order to gain more space for the road by both sides of the walkways were shifted to the outer sides of the bridge.

1945, the bridge was saved independently of each other by several citizens from the blast by the retreat located on the Wehrmacht. Today it is a memorial plaque at the downstream footpath on Blasewitzer page.

By 1985, the streetcar lines led to Pillnitz 4 and 15 to Loschwitz over the bridge. Since then, due to reduced viability of streetcar traffic and engineering for automobile traffic is a limit of 15 t.

2005 proposed the Left Party, the " Loschwitzer bridge " officially " Blue Wonder " rename. However, that the claim was not on the city council majority.

Since November 2011, beam 60 LED spotlights the bridge ( in cool white, felt: violet ) to. They shine in the winter to 23 clock in summer to 1 clock at night.

Technical Description

Claus Koepcke, the designer of the bridge called it stiffened three - hinged suspension bridge, for he looked for a way to build a suspension bridge that can not vibrate. In fact, however, corresponds to the construction of the Blue Wonder of a cantilever bridge or a reverse three-hinged arch bridge. The weight of the metal construction is 3500 t.

The 280 m long structure is 12 m wide. The two outer fields have a wingspan of 61.76 m, the middle one of 146.68 m. The carriers are from the top of pillars about 24 m high. The tensile forces of the upper chords are behind the abutments deflected by triangular frames, so that they can be compensated by weights, which are housed in walk-in anchor chambers. Each of the two weights is 1500 tons, the triangular frame 225 tons. The weights are made of cast iron, slag and sandstone blocks. The anchor chambers are 10.7 m high, 20 m wide and 15 m long.

Reception

While the Blue Wonder is a landmark of the city of Dresden today, the bridge and its form at the time were the occasion for criticism. The following quotes illustrate this.

The civil engineer and Dresden university teacher Georg Christoph Mehrtens ruled in 1900: The Köpcke'schen innovations undoubtedly offer great technical interest. But the unlovely outlines of consistently riveted heavy top chords of Loschwitzer bridge in conjunction with the unusual Arrow ratio of about 1/6 and the ugly stiffening of the middle joint, launched by carrier pieces seem less satisfactory aesthetic relationship. (...) The construction of a cantilever bridge would have been obtained even safer while simpler design without horizontal thrust, the outlines of which, when they are designed like a suspension bridge, would act favorably in the landscape than those of the Loschwitzer bridge

The Loschwitzer architect Karl Emil joke was in 1933: Over the Blue Wonder many derogatory judgments are formed. One regrets that the landscape is much affected by the iron structure. That's right! (...) The Blue Wonder is a child of his time; time, there was no Homeland Security and the far-reaching reinforced concrete was still unknown, even had the engineers by the approved by Parliament and limited construction costs tied her hands. - Now the time has come when you should proceed generous. One should make up for what was missed 40 years ago and intended to restore the landscape as it had existed before the bridge. This can only be achieved if the bridge is broken in the foreseeable future and replaced by a flachbögige reinforced concrete construction.

Name

In the time of origin, the bridge was one of the first of this range of metal which did not require piers in the river Elbe - among other reasons, she was described as a miracle.

The name " Blue Wonder " is also due to the light blue color of the bridge. To date, the rumor holds, the bridge was painted originally green ( from the mixed colors cobalt blue and chrome yellow ), and only due to weather conditions (other sources speak only of the sun), the yellow components were evaporated and only the blue is left. However, there are a number of journalistic and tangible evidence of the original color blue. So there are articles in newspapers from the time of its construction and a Gedenkmünzprägung occasion of the inauguration of the bridge, in which the bridge been labeled " Blue Wonder ".

Condition and conservation

Since the Blue Wonder suffered in contrast to the other Dresden Elbe bridges neither war damage was new or rebuilt for other reasons, is now questioned its permanent Erhaltbarkeit because of advanced aging. The traffic load of the bridge is high, and its preservation for the purposes of ( light ) Vehicle traffic through routine care only until about 2030.

For these reasons, the "Blue Wonder " was since the mid- 1990s, one of the central subjects of discussion in the dispute over the Waldschlößchenbrücke. Apart from this no other relief or replacement planning has been driven by the country's capital. However, it is disputed whether the relatively far (about 2.6 km ) distant new Elbe crossing the forest lodge will bring about an improvement of the situation in the " Blue Wonder ", as official forecasts only about 9 % decrease in traffic on the bridge itself with a simultaneous increase of the traffic along the Elbe on the driveway crossing Schiller space by about 10% predict (see → Dresden bridge dispute ).

One that goes beyond the 2030 use of the Blue Wonder is indeed thought possible, but problematic. Have been "? Rehabilitation, relief or replacement building " to the question and holding debates.