Dömitz Railway Bridge

The Elbbrücke Doemitz was a 986 m long railway bridge over the River Elbe and was among the longest river bridge in Germany. The partially destroyed building is Doemitz and was part of the railway line from Wittenberg to Lüneburg.

History

The railway bridge was built between 1871 and 1873 as a double-track bridge. She insisted on the western bank of the Elbe from 16 approach bridges with spans of 33.9 m each. The river bed was spanned by four bridge fields with spans of 67.8 m each and a swing bridge with 2 × 18.2 m. The eastern foothills bridged another four bridges in spans of 33.9 m each.

The superstructures were girder bridges with steel truss girders and bottom-mounted roadway. The longitudinal beams were designed as Schwedler carriers whose depth of the course, the moment stress followed approximately a maximum of 10 m. The Berlin engineer Häseler planned the structure, the bridge-building institution Johann Caspar Harkort from Duisburg built it. Given the proximity to Dömitzer fortress, the building was secured by Bridge Houses and received a massive wrought- iron fence.

Since the railway line did not achieve national significance as the main route, was enough for the amount of traffic the single-track operation even on the bridge.

After an air raid on 20 April 1945, the eastern front of the superstructure swing bridge plunged into the Elbe. Because the building crossed the inner German border, remained an under reconstruction. In 1978, the remaining three -phase bridges and the piers were demolished because of the danger of collapse, followed in 1988, the eastern portion of the swing bridge and associated approach viaducts. Today the 16 western approach bridges exist with the corresponding bridgehead; they are under monument protection.

In 2009 the bridge from the owner, Deutsche Bahn, was offered for sale to the highest bidder. The auction of the bridge, including more than 70,000 sqm was held on 10 April 2010 in Berlin, the minimum bid was set by the auction house to 19,800 euros. The contract was awarded a Dutch real estate company for the sum of 305,000 euros.

Pictures

• Ruins of railroad bridge at the downstream left ( Lower Saxony ) bank of the Elbe

In flood area the arch had a span of 33,90 m.

On the left bank of the Elbe are the arch of the bridge in flood area still preserved.

Side view of a bridge pier in the flood - area

Abutment of the first arch of the bridge on the left bank of the Elbe Bridge House

View from the left bridge house along the remaining bridge towards the Elbe

Side view of the bridge house; right in the picture of the railway embankment, left the bridge

Bridge in flood area of the left bank of the Elbe