My next Pic of the Week was based on a discovery of a historic bridge I made in the last week. As my daughter and I were driving her best friend home to Mülsen in western Saxony, my GPS device on my VW decided to show me a shorter way to her home that was mainly narrow but very beaten up. The road goes along the Rotherbach Creek which empties into Gründelteich in Glauchau. As we were turning right, we crossed a concrete culvert resembling an arch span. We never stopped because there was no shoulder where we could pull off.
After a long week, we took a long spring walk on a Friday afternoon, only to discover the same bridge from a distance up the hill. We decided to walk down there to take a closer look. Judging from the construction material and its state, the bridge is a concrete culvert span that is over a century old. It’s approximately 20 feet long and 15 feet wide. From the ground the height was about seven feet high. The bridge appears to be in great shape, given the fact that the structure was narrow and comparing it to the state of the road it carried which left a lot to be desired- lots of potholes and cracks, too narrow even for buses and no shoulder. How buses manage to handle this road going from Thurm, through Voigtlaide to Glauchau remains a mystery that has yet to be resolved. But given Glauchau’s lack of finances to rebuild roads and streets, one will have to consider either driving a pick-up truck to navigate the rough roads like this one, or take the Bahn and Bike, which given the high gas prices lately may be the cheaper option to travel by train and bike to work.
As a consolation though, the bridge does have a nice natural back drop which will make it a place to visit in the future for future photo ops. And not far from the bridge is a restaurant called Forsthaus, where you can dine before embarking on the trails, either to St. Egidien or to Lichtenstein- both of which are only a few kilometers away in the forest. 🙂
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The Bridgehunter's Chronicles 