Ship bridge Wupper estuary

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Coordinates: 51 ° 2 ′ 27 ″  N , 6 ° 57 ′ 9 ″  E

Ship bridge Wupper estuary
Ship bridge Wupper estuary
Convicted pedestrian
Subjugated old Wupper estuary
place Leverkusen
construction Ship bridge
Number of openings 4th
opening April 20, 2014 (reopening)
location
Ship bridge Wupper estuary (North Rhine-Westphalia)
Ship bridge Wupper estuary

The Wupper estuary ship bridge is a historic ship bridge over the old Wupper estuary at Rhine river kilometer 703 in the Leverkusen district of Rheindorf . It consists of three ships named Unity , Law and Freedom , which are connected by a jetty.

Description of the ships

The unity is a Rheinklipper (or Stevenaak ) and was probably a single- masted sailing ship. The hull, built in 1907, is 20 meters long and 4.10 meters wide. It is the largest of the three ships.

The right is an eel choker and thus a former eel fishing ship. It is 13.20 meters long and 4.55 meters wide. It was built in 1924.

The freedom is over 100 years old glider. She is a flat bottom ship of the Tjalk type , 17 meters long and 4.20 meters wide and has a steel hull. The typical elements of a tjalk, the leeboards and the rudder, are missing.

  • Rheinklipper freedom

  • Eel fishing vessel right

  • Sailors unity

  • Aerial view of the ships in the estuary

history

A bridge connection as the last crossing before the confluence of the Wupper into the Rhine is documented as early as 1775 with the name An der kaiserlichen Brücke . There are no further records until the end of the 19th century. It was then replaced by a ferry service . Due to the industrial boom and increased passenger traffic, the first jetty was built here in 1920.

In the 1920s a Heinrich Gless received the ferry rights from Rheindorf to Rheinkassel on the other side of the Rhine. In 1929 Gless replaced the footbridge with a permanent one and at the same time raised bridge tolls from the users. From 1938 a contract with the city of Leverkusen came into force, which replaced the bridge toll with a subsidy from the city. The bridge was blown up in 1945 during the Second World War .

With the support of the city of Leverkusen, Gless built a new bridge with pontoons , but it was drifted away and badly damaged in the floods of 1956/57. Gless bought a clipper and a tjalk one after the other and turned them into floating pillars for a new ship bridge. He called these unity and freedom . In 1967 he acquired the third ship, the Aalschokker, and gave her the right name .

Despite the relocation of the Wupper estuary to the north in the 1970s, the complex remained a popular excursion destination. The meaning as a transition was lost. When Gless died in 1974, it was continued by his son-in-law. At the end of the 1970s, the city stopped the subsidy and placed high demands on the continued operation of the plant, which was sold by the heirs to Heinrich Schallenberg in 1982. A renovation then took place.

On July 14, 1983 the bridge was entered in the list of monuments of the city of Leverkusen. Another change of ownership took place in the early 1990s.

In September 1992, large parts of the superstructure on the right were destroyed in a fire and the boat sank. THW and fire brigade secured the facility from 1992–1995. The ownership structure was unclear at this time. An initiative was formed to save the bridge system, which was launched on October 26, 1995 to found the non-profit sponsoring association Schiffsbrücke Wuppermünd e. V. led.

Schallenberg bought the system together with Sparkasse Leverkusen and donated it to the friends' association on February 14, 1996. Refurbishment began in December 1997 when the ships were transferred to a shipyard in Lemmer . One after the other, the ships were refurbished and returned on September 1, 2003. The interior of the Tjalk lasted until April 2004. In November 2007 it was announced that the Wupperbrücke Unity , Law and Freedom will also be promoted as part of the Regionale 2010 .

On August 26, 2012, the topping-out ceremony was celebrated in the presence of Minister Groschek. The bridge reopened on Easter Sunday April 20, 2014. Since the opening there has also been a café and kiosk on the ship's bridge. The café and kiosk is operated as an employment and integration company by Diakonie Leverkusen.

literature

  • Sven Bardua: Without solid ground under your feet . In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung . Technology and engine. No. 48 , February 26, 2013, ISSN  0174-4909 , p. T5 .
  • Uwe Neddermeyer: About “Law” and “Freedom” - a special bridge. Ship bridge on the old Wupper estuary . In: Rheinisches Zahnärzteblatt . No. 4/2013 . rheinland media & kommunikation gmbh, Düsseldorf April 2013, p. 220–222 ( online [PDF; accessed March 13, 2015]).

Web links

Commons : Schiffbrücke old Wupper estuary  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Photographs of the ship bridge from different angles
  2. ^ Topping- out ceremony for the Wupperschiffe
  3. ↑ Opening planned for autumn. In: Leverkuser Anzeiger. September 10, 2013, accessed November 17, 2013 .