Commercial port lift bridge
The Handelshafen lift bridge is a lift bridge in the Magdeburg trading port in the Alte Neustadt district of Magdeburg . Today it is a technical monument .
The bridge was built in 1894 for the port railway . It bridges the canal that leads from the Elbe into the trading port. It was designed as a lift bridge to enable rail and shipping to operate during floods . When the water level was high, the bridge could be raised for shipping and lowered again for rail traffic.
The trough is made in a steel framework construction. The span is 32 m, the weight 129 t. On each side of the bridge there are two corner towers with 30 t counterweights. The counterweights are connected to the trough bridge to be lifted via pulleys and ten steel ropes and provide extensive weight compensation. A five-meter-long spindle , which moved the trough bridge , was driven by means of gearwheels with a hydraulic system connected to a ring pressure water line in the port area . In the event of an emergency, it was possible to lower or raise the bridge with the help of a Göpel drive with human power.
In 1932 the bridge got an electric drive that worked until 1978. In 1980 the bridge was locked in a lifting position of two meters. The load capacity of the bridge was no longer sufficient for the high axle loads of the port railway. The rail traffic over the bridge was stopped. It has served pedestrian traffic ever since. From 2008 the bridge was closed to pedestrians because of the rotten wooden beams under the planking. After repair work in 2009, where u. a. The planking was replaced by synthetic wood imitation planks, it was accessible again.
In February 2013 the bridge, which had been fixed in the raised position, was lowered and the stairs removed. Since the beginning of March it has been barrier-free for non-motorized traffic.
Although the bridge can no longer be used by rail vehicles, bridge coverage signals are still available. They are part of the basic equipment of every movable railway bridge and block the bridge track as long as the bridge is unlocked / open. The signals set up in the commercial harbor are, according to the old interpretation, "cover disks" (Ve 1), today "protection signals" (Sh 2). With a red stop disc with a white border, they indicate that rail vehicles are not allowed to drive on the bridge. When the pane is folded down = invisible, the stop command is canceled. The two protection signals are now without function. With the freely accessible signal on the south side of the bridge, the folding retaining disc can be operated by anyone using a hand lever. Bridge cover signals like the "cover disk" are of historical importance and in Germany only exist in three pairs (as of 2020).
literature
- Heinz Gerling : Monuments of the City of Magdeburg , Helmuth-Block-Verlag, Magdeburg 1991, ISBN 3-910173-04-4 , page 43
- Peter L. Pechstein: About an almost forgotten shape signal / The cover plates on the little Magdeburg lift bridge , Magazin für Eisenbahnfreunde DREHSCHEIBE, issue 289 (5/2018), pages 106–110
Coordinates: 52 ° 8 ′ 58.4 " N , 11 ° 39 ′ 44.4" E