Borders to Bridges: The Answers to the Guessing Quiz

Co-produced with sister column:

And now, after having looked and guessed at the bridges, here are the answers to the Guessing Quiz on whether the following bridges were part of the borders or not. 🙂

Please note that information on the correct answers pertaining to the “border” bridges can be found in the links highlighted. Some of these bridges were documented by the Chronicles earlier in the year.

GUESSING QUIZ: THE BRIDGES ALONG THE BORDER

When the border and the Berlin Wall went up, many of the bridges that made up the border between the Federal Republic of Germany (West) and the German Democratic Republic (East) were closed down or even removed. Only a handful of crossings remained open but under stringent control by the East German border guards, to ensure that no one left the country who was not supposed to.

The question is: Which bridges were affected? Look at the pictures below, determine if they were borders or not by marking Yes or No, and state your reason why by identifying where they are located. Borders meant that the bridges were either shut down to all passage or were under strict control by the East German army. The 16 German states are listed below to help you. Good luck! 🙂

Photo: R. Kirchner for wikiCommons

Y / N

Where? This bridge spans the River Elbe near the village of Dömritz at the Lower Saxony- Mecklenburg/Pommeranian border. This used to be a railroad crossing, the longest of its kind over the River Elbe.

Y / N

Where? This is located at the border between Berlin and Brandenburg near the town of Potsdam. The Glienicke Bridge was once known as the Bridge of Spies because of the spy exchanges that happened between 1961 and 1989.

Y / N

Where? This is located in Jena in Thuringia- The Alte Burgauer Brücke spanning the River Saale

Y / N

Where? This bridge is located in Oranienburg (Brandenburg)- The Queen Luisa Bridge.

Photo by Torsten Bätge for wikiCommons

Y / N

Where? This bridge spans the River Elbe in Lauenburg (Schleswig-Holstein), located 3 km west of the three-state corner where S-H, Lower Saxony and Mecklenburg-Pommerania are located. It connects Lower Saxony with S-H.

Y / N

Where? This is the Bösebrücke at Bornholmerstrasse in Berlin. It used to span the railway and Berlin Wall between Prenzlauer Berg and Gesundbrünnen

Y / N

Where? This is the Rudolphstein Viaduct spanning the River Saale at Motorway 9 at the Thuringian-Bavarian border. It was rebuilt in 1966 and was a border crossing until 1990.

Y / N

Where? This is the Eider Bridge in Friedrichstadt in Schleswig-Holstein, the oldest of the tied arch bridges that later replaced many Elbe River crossings, many in the former East Germany.

Photo by Störfix for WikiCommons

Y / N

Where? This is located in Vacha, at the Hesse-Thuringia border. The 13-span stone arch bridge was indeed guarded by border patrolmen until 1989.

10.

Y / N

Where? This is the Hörschel Viaduct, spanning the River Werra at the Thuringia-Hesse border. It carries the Motorway 4.

11.

Y / N

Where? This is the Oberbaum Bridge in Berlin between Kreuzberg and Friedrichshain.

12.

Y / N

Where? This is the Harburg Bridge, spanning the River Elbe in Hamburg.

13.

Y / N

Where? This viaduct is located in Grobau (Saxony), approximately 3 kilometers from the border train station Gutenfürst and another three from the Saxony-Bavarian border.

14.

Y / N

Where? This one is near Koditz, near Hof. It spans the River Saale but west of the Saxony-Bavarian border.

15.

Y / N

Where? This is the Selbitz Bridge, at the Bavarian-Thuringian border near Bad Blankenstein

16.

Y / N

Where? This is the Sparnberg Bridge, spanning the River Saale 3km west of Rudolphstein Viaduct at Sparnberg (Thuringia)

17.

Y / N

Where? This is the Harra Bridge spanning the Saale near Bad Lobenstein (Thuringia). The bridge is 13 kilometers from the Thuringian-Bavarian border.

18.

Y / N

Where? This is the former Avus Bridge at Checkpoint Bravo near Zehlendorf (Potsdam). It still spans the Teltow Canal at the former East-West border (now Berlin-Brandenburg)

19.

Y / N

Where? This bridge is located near Legenfeld in Saxony, spanning the River Zwickau Mulde.

20.

Y / N

Where? This is the Hirschberg Bridge spanning the River Saale between the Thuringian town and Untertiefengrün (Bavaria)

German States:

Baden-Wurttemberg, Bavaria, Berlin, Brandenburg, Bremen, Hamburg, Hesse, Lower Saxony, Mecklenburg-Pommerania, North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate, Saarland, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, Schleswig-Holstein, Thuringia

Answers will come on November 9th, the same day as the Fall of the Wall. 🙂

Check out the Flensburg Files and follow the updates pertaining to the 30th anniversary celebrations. There are lots of articles that have been written on this topic, including former border crossings and videos, just to name a few. As a hint, some of the answers to this quiz lie both there as well as here.

HB in Polk County, Arkansas For Sale: Any Takers?

MENA, ARKANSAS- Polk County, Arkansas has a historic bridge for sale. Built in 1915, the structure has a riveted steel Pratt pony truss design, with timber stringers and a wooden deck. The parameters of the bridge is 72 feet long and 11.67 feet wide between the trusses. It has been closed for several years, but the structure can be found on Polk County Road 50 near Old Sale Barn in Potter. Takers of the bridge must take it as is, and it must be removed and transported by licensed contractor with commercial general liability insurance. This is part of the plan to remove the truss bridge and replace it with a new structure. How the truss bridge is repurposed is dependent on the new owner.

Sealed bids will be accepted prior to the auction at 9AM on November 25, 2019 in the basement of the Polk County Courthouse. The courthouse is located at 507 Church AVE, Mena, AR 71953. Bids should be delivered in a sealed envelope and clearly marked “Polk County Road 50 bridge”. The bidder with the acceptable amount will retain responsibilities for the truss bridge, including relocation, restoration and repurposing. Funding may be available to offset the costs. Inquiries should be made to Polk County Judge, Brandon Ellison at 479-394-8133.

BHC Newsflyer: 8 October, 2019

Bleicher Hag Bridge in Ulm, Germany: Officially doomed. Set for removal by 2020

To listen to the podcast, click here.

Headlines:

Historic Bridge at Bleicher Hag in Ulm, Germany closed to all traffic- removal planned for next year

Article: https://www.swp.de/suedwesten/staedte/ulm/verkehr-in-ulm-beringer-bruecke-ab-sofort-auch-fuer-fussgaenger-und-radfahrer-voll-gesperrt-38666873.html

Tour Guide: https://bridgehunterschronicles.wordpress.com/2015/10/27/the-bridges-of-ulm-germany/

50th annual Covered Bridge Festival in Madison County, Iowa and the Reopening of the Cedar Bridge

Article: https://www.radioiowa.com/2019/10/07/rebuilt-cedar-bridge-will-be-dedicated-at-annual-madison-county-festival/

Tour Guide: http://bridgehunter.com/ia/madison/

Historic Brunswick Railroad Bridge in Kansas washed away by floods

Article: https://bridgehunterschronicles.wordpress.com/2019/10/08/brunswick-railroad-bridge-washes-away/

Historic Bridge in Massachusetts receives award for its rehabilitation

Article: https://www.beta-inc.com/project/central-avenue-elliot-street-bridge-rehabilitation/

Historic Battleground Golf Course Bridge in Deer Park, Texas Reopens after Facelift

Article: https://www.chron.com/neighborhood/deerpark/news/article/108-year-old-bridge-in-Deer-Park-to-get-471-000-13634380.php

Bridge Info: http://bridgehunter.com/tx/harris/bh49528/

Historic bridge in Bowling Green, Indiana relocated to Nashville in Brown County.

Bridge Info: http://bridgehunter.com/in/clay/17050/

Brunswick Railroad Bridge Washes Away

Photo courtesy of NSR, found on bridgehunter.com website

BRUNSWICK, KANSAS- Heavy rainfalls and flooding has been the theme for this year in much of the central and Midwestern parts of the US. High waters have damaged or destroyed many buildings, highways and bridges, disrupting services and causing billions of dollars in damage.

The Norfolk and Southern Railroad (NSR) Bridge spanning the Grand River near Brunswick, Kansas has joined the growing list of casualties from this abnormal year. A week ago on October 1^st, high waters and debris from fallen trees and buildings took out the century old viaduct, thus cutting off service between Moberley and Kansas City, Missouri. While the photo of the bridge remains in its aftermath is scary, a video posted by officials at NSR, showing the power of Mother Nature and the magnitude of the destruction of this bridge puts it beyond what we saw with the ice jams destroying bridges in Nebraska earlier in the year. It can even be comparative to a movie laden with such disasters.

The bridge itself was the second crossing at Brunswick. The multiple-span deck plate girder spans were built in 1916 and had a span of over 600 feet long. Its predecessor was a four-span Whipple through truss bridge that had been built in 1885 and served the Wabash Railroad for nearly three decades. These spans were eventually reused on branches of the railroad connecting Moberley and Des Moines, Iowa as well as Moulton and Ottumwa, also in Iowa. These lines were discontinued by the early 1980s, and all but one of the spans have been removed and scrapped. The remaining span from the original Brunswick crossing is privately owned and can be found spanning Village Creek south of Ottumwa. Two of the demolished truss spans used to span English Creek before they were destroyed to make way for the Red Rock Lake project, which was completed by 1968.

The author would like to thank Sandra Huemann-Kelly for bringing this to the readers’ attention.

BHC Pic of the Week Nr. 68

This pic of the week is, in a way, considered an update of sorts on one of the bridges located not far from the base in Glauchau. The Schlunzig Cable-Stayed Suspension, spanning the Zwickau Mulde River on the road going to the Volkswagen Company in Mosel, was supposed to be finished this year. But as you can see in this latest pic taken on October 2^nd of this year, storm clouds seem to roll over to delay the construction even further. Yet unlike these storm clouds that brought about much-needed Fall weather to the state of Saxony (with rain and cold weather to douse the dog days of summer), the storm clouds are figurative and are hovering over the region as well as the state capital of Dresden. Normally, all of the stayed cables should have been installed and the approaches built. Yet as of present, only the second set is being installed with five more to go. The cause of the delay has been due to shipping issues and faulty cables, according to the Chemnitz Free Press. With October already here, officials in charge of the project are now predicting that the 7 million Euro project will be finished in the next year due to delays and the winter months coming ahead. This announcement is a slap in the face for the State Ministry and Transportation and Business (LASUV), which is in charge of all infrastructural projects. In a statement to the Free Press, officials there claimed that such a delay will hinder any finalization of projects slated to start in the new year due to financial issues.

With this delay, residents are growing frustrated and for a good reason. The original structure, a 1964 product from East Germany, suffered substantial damage due to the 2013 floods and cannot be rehabilitated. This was the reason behind this new, futuristic style bridge. Still, with this announcement, locals and commuters will have to settle for another winter at a snail’s pace over the old structure. For truckers, it’s another winter’s detour through Zwickau instead of using the hopeful shortcut through Stollberg and Mülsen and over the bridge. But then again, we have been accustomed to loraxizing the likes of Greta Thunberg and passing half-assed legislation anyway, so there’s nothing we can say to that.

We can only hope that come 2020, the new Schlunzig Bridge will be done so we can bid a much-needed farewell to a crossing that did a world of service and usher in a new era that will be the new face along the Zwickau Mulde but one that will benefit everyone and the environment. My two cents on this pic and politics.

2019 Bridgehunter’s Awards: Now Taking Entries

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It’s been a year for bridge photos and tours, as well as successful preservation projects and the like. And now it’s time to give them the recognition they deserve. Entries are being taken for this year’s Bridgehunter Awards, presented by the Bridgehunter’s Chronicles. Between now and December 1^st, you have an opportunity to submit your favorite bridge in the following categories:

Best Bridge Photo

Lifetime Achievement

Best Kept Secret Individual

Best Bridge Tour Guide

Best Example of a Preserved Historic Bridge

Mystery Bridge

And Bridge of the Year.

Information on the requirements can be found per link here: https://bridgehunterschronicles.wordpress.com/the-othmar-h-ammann-awards/

Please submit your entries per mail to Jason Smith at the Chronicles at: Flensburg.bridgehunter.av@googlemail.com. Deadline is December 1^st with voting to commence afterwards.

With some exceptions the awards will be given on the American and International levels, Therefore, entries are welcomed from all around the world.

This is the first time the awards are being given under the new name. Although it is considered a generic name, it includes the categories named after several bridge greats, from Ammann himself, to Eric DeLony, honoring them for their work in bridge construction and preservation. The Author’s Choice Awards, where the author chooses his best and worst for bridge preservation and destruction remains as is, but if you have some candidates worth mentioning, please check the guidelines in the link and submit your entries, using the above-mentioned e-mail address. While the Pics of the Week will not be included in this year’s awards, there is a separate page in the Chronicles where you can click on and have a look at the photos taken by the author, using them as a source of inspiration to refine and improve your photo-taking skills.

And with that, all I can say is Happy Bridgehunting and looking forward to the entries! 🙂