Rapperswil – Hurden wooden bridge (reconstruction)
Coordinates: 47 ° 13 ′ 14 " N , 8 ° 48 ′ 43" E ; CH1903: 704011 / two hundred and thirty thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight
| Rapperswil – Hurden wooden bridge | ||
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| Official name | Wooden walkway | |
| use | Schwabenweg | |
| Crossing of | Lake Zurich | |
| place | Rapperswil SG , Hurden | |
| construction | Yoke bridge | |
| overall length | 841 m | |
| width | 2.4 m | |
| Clear height | 1.5 m | |
| building-costs | 3'050'000 CHF | |
| start of building | August 9, 2000 | |
| opening | April 6, 2001 | |
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| Above sea level | 406 m above sea level M. | |
The Rapperswil – Hurden wooden footbridge is the name given to the reconstruction of the historic wooden bridges between Rapperswil and Hurden , which was opened on April 6, 2001 . It enables a pedestrian connection between Rapperswil and Hurden in the area of the upper Lake Zurich as well as the historical route of the Swabian Way from Constance over the Etzelpass to Einsiedeln, which is popular with pilgrims .
Idea and project planning
The tremendous increase in the volume of traffic on the causeway in the 1950s to the turn of the century (23'830 vehicles per day) and the related air and noise emissions have led to a broad support for a new project. The hiking trail leading directly to the expressway over the Seedamm, also popular as a local recreation area , should be rebuilt based on the historical route of the Schwabenweg over the old wooden bridge. In the early 1970s, the "Rapperswil-Jona Transport and Improvement Association" (VVRJ) and the "Association for the Protection of the Landscape at Lake Zurich" discussed this idea. In 1975 a project loan of 10,000 francs was approved, but a project study was not carried out until 1985 due to other priorities. In August 1998 the legal form of an association was found , which was acceptable to all involved .
Planning and construction
Now the " Arbeitsgemeinschaft (ARGE) Pedestrian-Holzsteg Rapperswil-Hurden" was able to create the definitive project planning specifications and organized the fundraising from private circles and in cooperation with the neighboring cantons, districts ( See-Gaster and Höfe ) and the communities of Rapperswil-Jona and Freienbach . The planning and construction costs of CHF 3,050,000 were mostly financed by donations. For the construction of the new wooden bridge, the city of Rapperswil and the municipality of Freienbach jointly took over the building owner and assigned it to a building commission. In the spring of 2000, the cantons of St. Gallen and Schwyz, responsible for construction in the Obersee area, issued the necessary building permits.
The building of bridges began after the breeding season of fish and birds on August 9, 2000 with the first pile driving by a private company specializing in timber and hydraulic engineering in Zurich. 233 piles with a length of 7 to 16 meters, a total of 415 cubic meters of oak, and 61 tons of steel were used. With a few exceptions (main beams, barriers, connecting parts), the bridge is made of untreated oak . The clear height above the lake level ( 406 m above sea level ) averages 1.5 meters; the lifespan is estimated at 50 to 70 years.
A pilgrim footbridge for the Schwabenweg
On April 6, 2001, at 841 meters and a width of 2.4 meters, the longest modern wooden bridge in Switzerland was opened. The inauguration was carried out by Georg Holzherr, the abbot of the Einsiedeln monastery . As in previous centuries, a billy goat was the first living creature to be allowed to cross the bridge. The bridge route was modeled on the aforementioned Bronze Age wooden footbridge and partly on the historical route (mainly the route from 1816), so that the Schwabenweg , which is also popular for hiking , from Konstanz over the Etzelpass to Einsiedeln , can be walked in its earliest form.
In the Middle Ages, wooden bridge chapels were donated for the pilgrims: The Heilig Hüsli has survived the centuries and was included in the lines of the reconstructed bridge. This historically significant remnant of the old bridge is a listed building and is the property of the local community of Rapperswil-Jona. As part of the anniversary event 10 years of wooden footbridge , a replica of the original Piéta in the bridge chapel was designed by the artist Marlies Pekarek for the interior of the chapel, inaugurated and blessed on April 7, 2011, with the intention of returning the bridge chapel to its original purpose.
Conservation and recreation
The small islands near Heilig Hüsli in Rapperswil have been under nature protection since 1979 : the new building extended the protected area to the entire western surface of the lake up to the Dreiländerstein at the Seedamm, to a total area of around one square kilometer. The overgrown with shrubs, trees and reed islands are a nationally important bird breeding area to its regular residents grebes , mute swan , mallard , pochard , tufted duck , common eider , coot , black-headed gull , gull and tern count. A breeding colony with over 200 pairs of black-headed gulls, up to 25 pairs of common tern and up to four pairs of the black-headed gull, which is rare there, has formed on the gravel island between the sea dam and wooden bridge. The eider has the only regular breeding population in Europe in the reserve, the black-headed gull is one of the few in Switzerland. The lake dam is also a guideline for bird migration , which, especially in autumn, migratory birds follow from Toggenburg over the mountain ranges and cross the peninsula of Hurden or Lützelau and Ufenau on their flight to the south. Since the inauguration of the reconstructed bridge, no noticeable changes in the behavior of the birds and the breeding populations have been observed: " The design of the wooden bridge is ideal for animals and people ".
The reconstruction of the historic bridge connection has become an important local and regional attraction. In the 2002 summer season, after it was reopened, it was visited by around 115,000 people, the majority of whom were looking for relaxation from the surrounding area. For many, the Pilgersteg is an attractive local recreation area , at the same time a popular excursion destination and has made a positive contribution to the tourist development of the region.
The canton of St. Gallen classifies the bridge as a first-class municipal trail , and in the canton of Schwyz it has been included in the cantonal network of hiking trails. The lake crossing is part of the European long-distance hiking trail E1 (Flensburg – Genoa).
Cultural property of national importance
In the context of the historic wooden bridge Rapperswil – Hurden , the Seedamm, the wooden footbridge and the prehistoric and medieval bridges are listed in the Swiss inventory of cultural assets of national importance as class A objects.
literature
- Jolanda Blum: The Way of St. James through Switzerland . Ott special hiking guide, 7th edition. Verlag Ott, Thun 2007. ISBN 3-7225-0089-3
- Arthur Krause: European long-distance hiking trail E1 . Compass hiking guide. Kompass-Kt.-GmbH, Innsbruck 2007. ISBN 978-3-85491-707-6
- Michael Turzynski: On the E1 from Gothenburg via Flensburg to Genoa . Book on demand. BoD GmbH, Norderstedt 2007. ISBN 978-3-83349-275-4
- Cornel Doswald: Bridge building in a historical context . Road and traffic No. 6, 2006.
- Hans Rathgeb: Bridges across the lake . Edited by the working group for pedestrians-Holzsteg Rapperswil-Hurden, Rapperswil 2001. ISBN 3-9522511-1-9
- Dieter Trachsler: Pilgrimage routes of Switzerland: Way of St. James; Schwabenweg: Konstanz - Einsiedeln, with special consideration of the Zurich Oberland . Ed. Zürcher Wanderwege (ZAW), 2nd edition, Wetzikon 2000.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ The tunnel skepticism has not given way ( memento from June 2, 2013 in the Internet Archive ), website VCS, local group Linth
- ↑ a b Website Holzsteg Rapperswil , accessed on May 24, 2008
- ↑ In 1816, engineer Hans Kaspar Stadler gave the pier a straight line.
- ↑ Heilig Hüsli , on ART-TV , accessed on February 9, 2012
- ^ Information board in Rapperswil
- ↑ Linth newspaper (April 5, 2006): Positive balance for the wooden walkway
- ↑ Silvia Stuppäck, Bernd Schubert, Karin Wolf: The economic effects of the wooden footbridge between Hurden and Rapperswil . Final report for the attention of the University of Applied Sciences Rapperswil (HSR), Research Center for Leisure, Tourism and Landscape. Rapperswil in May 2003.
- ^ KGS inventory: Canton St. Gallen, A objects. Retrieved January 17, 2020 . (PDF; 249 kB)
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