Philadelphia Bridge

Philadelphia Bridge
	The Philadelphiabrücke over the Südbahn
use	Motor vehicles, pedestrians, trams , local railway Vienna – Baden
Crossing of	Southern runway
place	Vienna 12
construction	Prestressed concrete bridge
overall length	41.50 m
width	36.80 m
start of building	1977
completion	1978
opening	2nd October 1978
	location

48.173806 16.32981Coordinates: 48 ° 10 ′ 26 ″ N , 16 ° 19 ′ 47 ″ E

The Philadelphiabrücke in Vienna , 12th district , leads as an extension of Meidlinger Hauptstraße over the tracks of the Südbahn to the beginning of Breitenfurter Straße at Schedifkaplatz, a few meters west of the Wien Meidling train station and the Meidling subway station that is structurally connected to it. Tram line 62, the local railway Vienna – Baden and the city bus lines 7A, 62A, N8 (Monday - Friday) and N62 (weekends and public holidays) run across the bridge . (Under road construction law, the B12, Brunner Straße , crosses the bridge.)

Naming

The first steam locomotive to be used on the Vienna-Gloggnitz Railway , later the Südbahn, was ordered in the city of Philadelphia in the United States and was delivered to the Vienna suburb of Meidling in the summer of 1838 (a 1: 5 scale replica is in the Vienna Technical Museum ). At that time all locomotives had names; this was called Philadelphia . The first bridge, without a name, was put into operation in the spring of 1841.

Later, an inn at Meidlinger Hauptstrasse 77 and 79 bore the name of the locomotive, at Wilhelmstrasse 53 / corner of Eichenstrasse there was also an “Gasthof zur Stadt Philadelphia” and soon the bridge was not officially named that way. In the course of the incorporation of the suburbs, 1890-1892, the name Philadelphiabrücke was officially recorded by the Vienna city council when the second bridge was in operation at this location (today's bridge is the fourth).

The name was adopted for the underground station on the U6 line, which opened next to the bridge in 1989 , but on October 5, 2013 it was renamed "Bahnhof Meidling".

history

Today's Philadelphiabrücke is the fourth fixed bridge at this point. Since the Liesinger Weg (about Breitenfurter Strasse - Wilhelmstrasse - Windmühlgasse) was an important connection from Baden to Vienna, it had to be preserved when the southern runway was built, which was made in the cut between agricultural areas to avoid inclines in the railway line. Therefore, a stone bridge with four arches was opened here in 1841 at the same time as the railway went into operation. This bridge crossed the railway at an oblique angle.

In 1860, the construction of the connecting line connected to the southern runway required more tracks and thus a new bridge. In 1861 the previous bridge was demolished and an emergency bridge was built, which was replaced in 1863 by the new iron construction at a right angle to the tracks. The development of Vienna made a new bridge necessary again after the turn of the century (suburbs such as Meidling had meanwhile been incorporated), which was opened in 1910. Tram tracks were now also on it, so that line 62 no longer had to use the bridge of the Badner Bahn slightly to the east as before.

Old Bridge of the Badner Bahn (1976); Also used here by tram line 62 because of the construction work for the new bridge

The bridge was badly damaged in World War II , but it was restored. In 1975, however, it had to be closed to all vehicle traffic because it was dilapidated, and pedestrians were only allowed to enter it in the middle. The necessary new building was opened in 1978 and has since been used by the Badner Bahn; their own bridge was now superfluous and has been removed.

With the extension of the U6 underground line to the Philadelphiabrücke and further south in 1989, with the connection with the Vienna Meidling train station when the underground station was built and with its new construction, the area around the bridge became a junction of public transport significantly upgraded. In private traffic, the Philadelphiabrücke was greatly relieved by the Wienerbergbrücke, which opened in 1966 and ran 300 m further west over the Südbahn.

literature

Ludwig Varga: The history of the Philadelphiabrücke. History of a building and its surroundings. Sheets from the Meidlinger District Museum, Vienna 1999, issue 46/47.
Felix Czeike : Historical Lexicon Vienna. Volume 6 (supplementary volume), Kremayr & Scheriau and Orac, Vienna 2004, ISBN 3-218-00741-0 , p. 150 f.

Individual evidence

^ Ferdinand Opll : Vienna and its environs in the middle of the 19th century . In: Yearbook of the Upper Austrian Museum Association . tape 157 . Linz 2012, p. 537 ( PDF on ZOBODAT [accessed on March 2, 2015] PDF p. 15).
↑ Graf Gatterburg: Report of the Lower Austrian Provincial Committee, with which the tabular evidence of the result of the road survey carried out is presented . XIX– [1879] of the supplements […] In: Supplements to the stenographic minutes of the Lower Austrian Parliament. II. Session. V. Election term. From I to CXVII. Vienna 1880, p. 36 (PDF-S. 847) ( online in Google-Buchsuche- USA [accessed on March 1, 2015] Table I, district streets no. 128). "From the railway viaduct to the inn 'to the city of Philadelphia' in Unter-Meidling via Altmannsdorf, Atzgersdorf, [...]"

[1] Ferdinand Opll : Vienna and its environs in the middle of the 19th century . In: Yearbook of the Upper Austrian Museum Association . tape 157 . Linz 2012, p. 537 ( PDF on ZOBODAT [accessed on March 2, 2015] PDF p. 15).

[2] Graf Gatterburg: Report of the Lower Austrian Provincial Committee, with which the tabular evidence of the result of the road survey carried out is presented . XIX– [1879] of the supplements […] In: Supplements to the stenographic minutes of the Lower Austrian Parliament. II. Session. V. Election term. From I to CXVII. Vienna 1880, p. 36 (PDF-S. 847) ( online in Google-Buchsuche- USA [accessed on March 1, 2015] Table I, district streets no. 128). "From the railway viaduct to the inn 'to the city of Philadelphia' in Unter-Meidling via Altmannsdorf, Atzgersdorf, [...]"