Napoleon Bridge (Müngsten)
The Napoleonsbrücke is an arched bridge built between 1846 and 1849 over the Wupper in Müngsten between the cities of Solingen and Remscheid at the mouth of the Morsbach . It is placed under protection as an architectural monument .
design type
The 6.28 meter wide vault bridge rests on three pillars , two of which are on land and one in water. The end walls are not built parallel to the rising road, but are in the horizontal. As a result, two levels of leveling were necessary along the length of the bridge, which gave the bridge its characteristic appearance. The side walkways have twelve steps due to its total. The railing was designed as a wrought iron grid.
From the bridge you can see the Müngstener Diederichstempel along the Wuppertal .
history
At the beginning of the 19th century, a road connection between the two prospering industrial cities of Remscheid and Solingen, today's federal road 229, was increasingly lacking . Planning began in 1816 and was completed ten years later. While Remscheid had already brought the road up to the Wupper near Müngsten by 1823, the expansion on the Solingen side was delayed due to disputes until 1845.
A bridge was now required to cross the Wupper. This was built as a wooden bridge in 1819, but was destroyed again by a flood in 1840. A little south of the old bridge location, the construction of the stone Napoleon Bridge began in 1846, which according to some information should have been completed around 1847. However, a stone in the building notes the year 1849 as the date of completion. The quarry stones were extracted from a nearby quarry near Gockelshammer.
Traffic over the bridge was opened in 1848 and a stagecoach line was set up that same year . At the bridge, in the former home of the Halbach family of manufacturers, there was a popular excursion restaurant and, until the 1960s, the restaurant " Haus Müngsten ".
The bridge was used for through traffic until 1963, when it was replaced by a modern prestressed concrete girder bridge built next to it as part of the expansion of federal road 229 and the new construction of state road 74 . From then on it was used exclusively for pedestrians, mostly hikers as a Wupper crossing. For the opening of the Müngsten Bridge Park , the bridge was completely renovated in 2006 and 2007 as part of the Regionale 2006 in two construction phases.
Naming
The name Napoleonsbrücke is not contemporary, but only gained acceptance among the population in the last few decades. The origin of the name is unclear, but the bridge has also been listed in the official list of monuments of the city of Solingen since June 15, 1998 under the number 594 as Napoleon's bridge.
Web links
- The Napoleon Bridge on tetti.de
- Description as Monument of the Month September 2013 on the website of the City of Remscheid
Coordinates: 51 ° 9 ′ 56 ″ N , 7 ° 8 ′ 10 ″ E