Caprivi Bridge

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Coordinates: 52 ° 31 ′ 14 ″  N , 13 ° 18 ′ 22 ″  E

Caprivi Bridge
Caprivi Bridge
use Road traffic
Convicted Wintersteinstrasse
Crossing of Spree
place Berlin , district of Charlottenburg
construction Prestressed concrete frame bridge
overall length 62 m
width 24 m
Longest span 42.0 m
Load capacity 60 t
Clear height 5.2 m
start of building 1954
opening 1956
location
Caprivibrücke (Berlin)
Caprivi Bridge
Memorial plaque , Caprivibrücke, in Berlin-Charlottenburg

The Caprivibrücke is a road bridge over the Spree in Berlin-Charlottenburg . It was named after the Chancellor Count Leo von Caprivi . Today's bridge is a new construction from 1956.

location

The Caprivibrücke connects Otto-Suhr-Allee with Kaiserin-Augusta-Allee via Wintersteinstrasse and Sömmeringstrasse . Four lanes and two sidewalks run across the Caprivi Bridge. It has eight street lamps about 10 meters high. The nearest underground stations are Richard-Wagner-Platz and Mierendorffplatz . Directly at the bridge there is a water taxi departure point and a landing stage for excursion boats. On the north bank below the bridge is the Österreichpark , which opened in 2013 and extends west to an oxbow lake of the Spree. The old Charlottenburg power plant is located a little east of the Caprivi Bridge .

history

A simple wooden bridge financed by donations from citizens formed the first Spree crossing at its current location in 1900 , which was named Caprivibrücke in honor of the then Reich Chancellor. With the incorporation of Charlottenburg into Berlin, the now responsible Berlin bridge construction office decided to build a permanent bridge over the Spree and the wooden structure was removed. The new Caprivi Bridge was built between 1919 and 1923 as a steel arch bridge . The arch was 55 m long, with iron beams 11 m long on both sides to cross the riverside streets. The roadway was 10 m wide; sidewalks next to the steel arches, the 6 m wide walkways were attached. During the Second World War , towards the end of the Battle of Berlin, the bridge was blown up by Wehrmacht troops to prevent the advance of the Red Army . The reconstruction according to the original plans would hardly have been feasible and financially feasible with the materials and technical means available around 1950, almost all parts of the bridge had fallen into the river bed. In 1954 the construction of today's Caprivi Bridge began, for which a modern prestressed concrete construction was chosen. The bridge was built by the Philipp Holzmann company ; material from the Rheinhausen steelworks was used as prestressing steel . The bridge, now widened to 24 m, extends over the entire width of the Spree. The inclined side supports could be placed on the still existing but statically reinforced pile foundations of the previous structure. The new bridge consists of a flat frame structure made of two torsionally rigid hollow girders and was opened in September 1956.

Duck racing

In autumn 2008 the district office of Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf organized a “charity duck race” together with pastor Martin Germer of the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church under the patronage of its district mayor Monika Thiemen . Interested parties could buy the starting permit for a rubber duck. All 5,000 numbered ducks were thrown into the water at the Siemens footbridge at the same time . The sequence was stopped at the Caprivi Bridge, the fastest "birds" had reached the 400 m long route after 30 minutes. The proceeds from this charity event were donated to the renovation of the tower of the Memorial Church.

literature

  • Eckhard Thiemann, Dieter Deszyk, Horstpeter Metzing: Berlin and his bridges , Jaron Verlag, Berlin 2003, page 122; ISBN 3-89773-073-1

Web links

Commons : Caprivibrücke  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ private homepage "Bridges over the Spree"
  2. ↑ Manfred Pohl: Philipp Holzmann: History of a construction company 1849-1999 . CH Beck, Munich 1999, ISBN 3-406-45339-2 , pp. 322 ( limited preview in Google Book Search [accessed January 15, 2017]).
  3. ^ Review of the Berliner Morgenpost on the duck race