We decided to combine a Mystery Bridge and a Postcard Feature into one in this article, even though the latter is a day late. But better late than never. 😉
Our next Mystery Bridge takes is to the village of Silberhütte. The town is located 45 km NE of Nordhausen (Thuringia) in the southern part of Saxony Anhalt in eastern Germany. It’s located on the Selke at the foot of the Harz Mountains. The town has a population of 155 inhabitants, yet at one point, it had over 400. The town had a fireworks manufacturer that had employed over 1200 workers at one time before the Fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. That plus a saw mill were the anchors that kept the town alive and prosperous, all the way up until the East German dissolved and became part of a united Germany in 1990. Today, the village features several recreational possibilities, ranging from hiking to swimming.
But going back to this mystery bridge, I found this postcard recently as a nearby flea market, which featured one of the shortest, and most. interesting Marsh Rainbow Arch Bridges I have ever seen. The bridge was between 10 and 20 meters long and was equally wide as the Selke is just a stream passing through. The bridge resembled the Rainbow Arch Bridge that was designed and patented by American bridge builder James B. Marsh in 1912, yet it may have been based on previous design experiments in Europe by Austrian engineers, Josef Melan and Fritz von Emperger. Our assumption is a build date between 1890 and 1930. There’s no information on who built this structure.
The bridge today has long since been replaced. A culvert is now in service providing traffic to the main road, which is the only throughway passing through a place that is slowly becoming a ghost town because of its dwindling population and it’s relicts of the past growing and becoming part of nature.
Now it’s your turn. What do we know about this small, unique Rainbow Arch Bridge? You know what to do. Provide some comments below or feel free to send a message. Your bridge matters. ❤️🌉
The Bridgehunter's Chronicles 