Flying Bridge (Koblenz)

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The flying bridge over the Rhine in Koblenz
Flying bridge around 1800

The flying bridge over the Rhine connected the towns of Koblenz and Ehrenbreitstein from 1674 to 1819 . It was a greed ferry . Such crossings are not very common today on the Rhine. B. in Basel .

Previous buildings

After the destruction of the Roman Rhine bridge in the middle of the 5th century at the latest, the only connection between the two places was maintained for centuries via a ferry service. In this case the right of the Rhine crossing at this point was first to Cologne and proven in 1200 the Elector of Trier, who around 1500 the Office of Fährmeisters introduced and enacted in 1621 a Fährordnung. After that there were already larger ferries, for example for horse-drawn carts. In the 1620s, a larger swimming platform with a load capacity of several tons operated for the first time. In both cases, however, it was not yet a flying bridge . With the expansion of the Ehrenbreitsteiner Residenz under Elector Philipp Christoph von Sötern , the desire for a fixed Rhine crossing also arose, which was built in 1663 under his successor Karl Kaspar von der Leyen . The bridge, made of pile dwellings and barges , began on the Koblenz side in the area of ​​Kastorplatz. With its 43 barges, the lightweight structure was particularly endangered by ice and flooding due to the lack of a safety harbor. In the spring of 1670 and 1674, when there was heavy ice, some of the bridge boats were destroyed. Another time a wooden raft that was torn loose in Niederlahnstein caused damage.

The flying bridge

In 1674 a Gierponten ferry ( flying bridge ) operated for the first time between Koblenz and Ehrenbreitstein; it was operated by the bridge master Johannes Lahnstein and seven boatmen. Their floats consisted of two interconnected barges, above which a large area of ​​boards was mounted over a beam construction, at times there was also a small house as a shelter for the ferryman. In this shape the bridge offered space for 100 people or eight cars. The anchoring of the chains and ropes attached to the ferry was a good bit up the Rhine. She ran over a total of nine narrow boats. As is usual with ferries of this type, the rudder position of the ferry made it possible to use the current of the Rhine so that it could cross the river without any further propulsion.

The ferry traffic went from one bank to the other every 15 minutes. According to contemporary representations, the ferry landed below the gauge house , where the ship bridge later met the bank. Use was usually subject to a charge, court officials who lived in Koblenz and had to go to the electoral residence in Ehrenbreitstein more often received free tickets. The bridge was a special attraction for travelers and it is also shown on most of the old views of the city of Koblenz.

Since the operation of the flying bridge had to be stopped during floods and ice drifts, at the end of the 18th century there were considerations to build a permanent stone bridge over the Rhine - which, however, were not pursued further due to the high costs. The Rhine crossing was of particular importance in the event of war. Due to the low transport capacity of the flying bridge, a fixed pontoon bridge was then again built to allow the regiments to cross the river more quickly (for example in March and July 1792 and October 1794). Or the flying bridge was towed away in order to prevent any major traffic over the Rhine entirely. Which was particularly the case during the French occupation of Koblenz. In March 1796, the ship's pontoon was brought to Niederwerth Island and sunk, later lifted again and moved to Weißenthurm in March 1797 . Only two years later, following an objection from the municipal administration , the flying bridge returned to its original location. For another twenty years it remained the only Rhine crossing near Koblenz and was finally replaced by a ship bridge in the course of the construction of the Prussian fortress Koblenz in 1819 , which had already been planned in 1770 and 1786.

See also

literature

  • Hans Bellinghausen: Koblenz Rhine and Moselle Bridges in the past and present , in: New Moselle Bridge Koblenz. Festschrift for the inauguration and handover of the New Moselle Bridge Koblenz on July 24, 1954 , extended special print from Der Bauingenieur , year 29, 1954, issue 8, p. 12.
  • Erich Franke: History of the Koblenz bridges , in: Koblenz city of bridges. Documentation for the inauguration of the Koblenz Balduin Bridge. Koblenz: Stadt Koblenz 1975, pp. 14–63, here pp. 43–46 (Documentations of the City of Koblenz, 4).
  • Hans Wolfgang Kuhn: Early Gierponten: flying bridges on the Rhine in the 17th and 18th centuries . In: German Shipping Archive . tape 6 , 1983, pp. 25–64 , urn : nbn: de: 0168-ssoar-52531-4 .
  • Fritz Michel : The art monuments of the city of Koblenz. The profane monuments and the suburbs , Munich Berlin 1954, p. 145 (Die Kunstdenkmäler von Rheinland-Pfalz, first volume).
  • Johann Jakob Wagner : Rhine crossing and Rhine bridges near Koblenz . In: Mittelrheinische Geschichtsblätter, Vol. 8 (1928), No. 6, p. 4; No. 7, pp. 3-4; No. 8, p. 4; No. 9, pp. 3-4; No. 10, pp. 2-4; No. 11, p. 2 . 1928 ( dilibri.de ).
  • Karl Zimmermann: The flying bridge between Koblenz and Ehrenbreitstein . In: Koblenzer Heimatblatt . tape 2 , no. 52 . Koblenz December 1926 ( dilibri.de ).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Kuhn, p. 62; Wagner, No. 7, p. 4, No. 8, p. 4.
  2. ↑ Franke, p. 43.
  3. ↑ Kuhn, p. 40.
  4. ↑ Kuhn, p. 40 and 62. Its dating is based on the evaluation of the fully preserved bridge bill accounts for the years 1668–1675 in the Koblenz State Main Archives, signature 1 C No. 12773.
  5. ↑ See Bellinghausen, p. 12. After that, 120 cavalrymen or 16 carriages with two horses were able to cross over at once.