List of bridge structures in Basel

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The list of bridge constructions in Basel includes both the large Rhine bridges and important inner-city viaducts and footbridges.

Rhine bridges

Middle Bridge, Johanniter Bridge and Dreirosen Bridge

Today's bridges

Eight bridges span the Rhine in Basel. These are arranged in the direction of flow of the Rhine:

Surname Opening 1) traffic Remarks
Birsfelden power plant 1954 Pedestrians and bicycles. Way over the weir. The right bank is Basel, the left bank is Birsfelden.
second railway bridge 2012 Railroad and pedestrians. Quasi a widening of the first railway bridge. Officially doesn't have a name of its own.
Railway bridge 1873 Railroad and pedestrians. New building in 1962. Pedestrians only since the new building.
Black Forest Bridge 1973 Motorway, general private transport, buses and pedestrians. Replaced the St. Alban Bridge built in 1955, which was demolished after the Black Forest Bridge was built.
Wettstein Bridge 1879 General private transport, trams and pedestrians. New building in 1995.
Middle Rhine bridge 1225 (?) General private transport, trams, buses and pedestrians. Closed to private motor vehicles since 2015. Exact year of construction not handed down. First and until 1879 only Basel Rhine bridge. New building in 1905.
Johanniterbrücke 1882 General private transport, buses and pedestrians. New building in 1967.
Dreirosenbrücke 1934 Motorways, general individual traffic, trams and pedestrians. New building in 2004.

1) Opening year of the first bridge at the site.

Another bridge, the three-country bridge, is located directly below the three-country corner. It was opened in 2007 and is open to pedestrians and cyclists. It connects the German Weil am Rhein with the French Huningue . A bridge had stood here since the 19th century, but it was destroyed by the Americans in 1944. After the war and until the Palmrain Bridge was built , a free car ferry operated as a bridge replacement.

Former bridges

Earlier, now demolished Rhine bridges in Basel were:

  • the Dufour Bridge , a short-term military pontoon bridge during the Neuchâtel trade of 1857, which was located approx. 100 m above today's Wettstein Bridge.
  • the emergency bridge to the Middle Bridge (1903–1905), a temporary wooden bridge that was built a few meters downstream during the construction of today's Middle Bridge.
  • the St. Albanbrücke , which from 1955 to 1973 stood about 100 m downstream of the current Black Forest bridge . In the place of the previous bridgeheads, the Cécile-Ines-Loos facility and the new Breite-Zentrum are now on the Grossbasel side, and the Tinguely Museum on the Kleinbasel side.

Unrealized projects

  • Sevogelbrücke: In the construction plan from 1901, a Rhine crossing was planned about 100 meters above today's St. Alban ferry. The bridge was to begin on the Grossbasel side next to the Letziturm and end on the Kleinbasel side in Peter Roth-Strasse. The idea was never put into concrete terms. The idea was resumed in 1960 and the canton even bought land for the planned Grossbasler bridgehead, but although the project was considered an urgent component of Basel's transport planning until well into the 1970s, construction was never started. With the revision of the overall traffic planning from 1979, the project then disappeared again in the drawer. In 2014, the government published “Teilrichtplan Velo 2013”, the idea reappears, but now in the form of a bridge only for pedestrians and bicycles.
  • Birsfelderbrücke: In the 1960s there were plans to build another bridge east of the Birsfeld power station , which would then have been called the Birsfelderbrücke . The plans were dropped first because of the enormous costs and then because of the expected natural damage in the Rheinaue nature reserve. However, you can still see the course of the road facing the bridge today: the bridge would have connected Birsfelder Sternenfeldstrasse with Basler Hörnliallee. The Birsfelden autobahn exit is also oriented towards this bridge.

Ferries

Pedestrians can also cross the Rhine with one of the four ferries . These four ferries are in the flow direction of the Rhine:

Official name Ship name
St. Alban Ferry Wild Maa
Munster ferry Leu
Klingental ferry Vogel Gryff
St. Johanns ferry Ueli

Today the ferries are just a nostalgic attraction, but from the commissioning of the first ferry in 1854 to the construction of the Wettstein, Johanniter and later the Dreirosen Bridge, they served a real transport function.

Birsigbrücken

Three inner-city viaducts lead over the Birsig. These are downstream:

Until the Birsig dipped beneath today's Heuwaage Viaduct, there were numerous small bridges in the old town. Some of the structures of the underground river tunnel are still preserved today:

  • the Munimatt Bridge (at the entrance of the tunnel, freestanding again from 2017)
  • the Aubergbrücke (built after the city wall was torn down, new entrance to the tunnel from 2017)
  • the Lohhofbrücke (also called Lohhofsteg, today Lohweg)
  • the Klosterbergbrücke (also called Steinenbrücke, today Stänzlergasse)
  • the Theatersteg (formerly Ballenhaussteg, today Theatergässlein)
  • the Barfüssersteg (also called Barfüsserbrücke, demolished in the Middle Ages)
  • the Pfluggassbrücke (previously called Snürlinssteg, Richtbrücke, Weisse Brücke, today Pfluggässlein)
  • the Kuttelbrücke (formerly Menlinssteg, demolished in the Middle Ages, today Rüdengasse)
  • the Schintbrücke (also called the striking bridge, near today's Sattelgasse, demolished in the Middle Ages)
  • the Neue Brücke (also called Edelleutebrücke, near today's Eisengasse, demolished in the Middle Ages)
  • the Stadthausgassbrücke (today Stadthausgasse)
  • an unnamed jetty (at today's fish market, broken off in the Middle Ages)
  • an unnamed jetty at the salt tower (at today's Schifflände, broken off in the Middle Ages)

More viaducts and bridges

Two inner-city bridges lead over the Birs. These are downstream:

  • the Reding Bridge for private transport
  • Birssteg, a footbridge built in 1934 to the Schulstrasse tram stop in Birsfelden
  • the Birskopfstegbrücke for pedestrians and bicycles

The following bridges cross the railway tracks. From the SBB train station in the direction of Switzerland:

  • the Peter Merian Bridge for private transport
  • the Gundeldinger passerelle for pedestrians
  • the Münchensteinerbrücke with tram and private transport

From the SBB train station in the direction of France:

  • the Margarethenbrücke for trams and private transport

literature

See also