July 14th Bridge
Coordinates: 33 ° 17 ′ 44 ″ N , 44 ° 24 ′ 0 ″ E
| July 14th Bridge | ||
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| use | Road bridge | |
| Crossing of | Tigris | |
| place | Baghdad | |
| construction | Suspension bridge | |
| Longest span | 167.4 m | |
| start of building | 1961 | |
| completion | 1964 | |
| planner | David B. Steinman | |
| location | ||
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The July 14th Bridge (also Arbataash Tamuz Bridge ) is a road bridge over the Tigris in Baghdad , Iraq . It connects the Platz des 14 Juli on the Straße des 14 Juli in the Karch district in the former Green Zone with the Karrada district in the loop of the Tigris.
The bridge, the square of the same name and the street are named after the " Revolution of July 14, 1958 ", in which the monarchy established by the British was overthrown by the Free Officers under General Abd al-Karim Qasim . July 14 was the day of the revolution the national of Iraq, was until he replaced on April 9, the day of the fall of Saddam Hussein in the year of 2003.
The bridge has two lanes in each direction, but due to the strict security controls at the driveways, it is only used in one lane in practice.
The suspension bridge has a span of 167.64 m (550 ft), the side openings are each 83.82 m (275 ft) wide. Since the ground in Baghdad consists of alluvial land, in which the anchors of the carrying ropes would not find sufficient hold to withstand the tensile forces, the bridge is a so-called self-anchored (fake) suspension bridge, in which the carrying ropes are anchored to the track girder, which is accordingly strong have to be. The bridge deck therefore consists of a solid steel girder .
David B. Steinman , one of the outstanding bridge construction engineers of his time, was commissioned to plan the bridge in 1956. However, Steinman, who died in 1960, did not see his office build the bridge. Due to political circumstances, construction only began in 1961 and was completed in 1964. The crossbars of the pylons suggest an Arabic pointed arch. The bridge is painted the green preferred by Steinman.
During the Second Gulf War , the bridge was probably unintentionally damaged on February 9, 1991 by Operation Desert Storm . It is unclear how much it was repaired and used afterwards. After Baghdad was conquered in the Iraq war , it was classified as unsafe in April 2003, closed and then repaired. The ceremonial reopening took place on October 25, 2003. Due to a bomb attack in Baghdad on November 13, 2003, it was closed again until mid-2004 for security reasons; since then, after security checks, it can only be used by people who have access to the Greens or now the International Zone .
Individual evidence
- ^ Bridge of July 14th. In: Structurae
- ^ A b Richard Scott: In the wake of Tacoma, suspension bridges and the quest for aerodynamic stability . ASCE Press, Reston, Va. 2001, ISBN 0-7844-0542-5 , p. 35 ff
- ↑ Collateral Damage on washingtonpost.com
- ↑ Green Zone on GlobalSecurity.org
- ^ Abeer Mohammed: Iraqis Take Control, but Bridge Remains Off Limits , New York Times, December 31, 2008