The 103rd mystery bridge takes us back to the state of Saxony, but this time to Zwickau. In 2016, I did a tour guide on the city’s bridges because of its history and unique design. This tour guide can be seen here. Regrettably, I missed a few bridges most recently, which may mean an update. This bridge was one of them.
I found this bridge by chance during a bike tour to explore the city. Zwickau is the city that I’m planning on moving to with my family next summer, so it was my duty to find a good place to re-establish the household, not to mention my business of the Chronicles. The bridge is located at Außer Schneeberger Strasse just south of Breithauptstrasse, just behind Glück Auf, the largest shopping area in Zwickau and the Zwickauer Land region (which includes Aue, Schneeberg, Kirchberg, Glauchau, Stollberg and Hohenstein-Ernstthal). The bridge currently spans a pipeline and runs parallel to an abandoned rail line between the central station and Pöhlau.
Next to the bridge is a steel plate girder span that appears to have been built in the 1970s. The bridge we are looking at is a Town Lattice truss bridge, which appears to have been built in the 1880s. There are three such spans, all of which are supported by stone piers. Each span is about 40 meters long and about 7 meters wide. The truss spans appears to have been painted recently in order to prevent rust and corrosion. The steel span is about 20 meters longer, twice as wide, and appears to have had two tracks at that time. The question we have here is whether the Town Lattice truss bridge was used first as a railroad crossing before it was converted to its current function as a pipeline crossing. This in addition to finding out when exactly it was built and who the builder way.
The map is enclosed below. Do you know more about the bridge? If so, it would be much appreciated if you can share some info. This bridge is easy to miss, yet by foot one should take some time to visit it. Let alone find out more about this missing gem…… 🙂
The Bridgehunter's Chronicles 