Seseke Bridge
The Sesekebrücke , also known as the five-arch bridge , is one of the oldest railway bridges in Germany that is still in operation and largely preserved in its original state. It is located in Kamen and crosses the Seseke .
It was built in 1846 for the Cologne-Mindener Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft as one of the 14 bridges on the main line Duisburg – Wanne – Dortmund – Hamm. While iron bridges had been built in England since the early 1830s, in Germany only stone bridges were built. Not until a short time later did Casper Harkort open the first renowned iron bridge construction company in Wetter an der Ruhr.
The Seseke bridge is therefore made of ashlar in a simple, classicistic design language. The five arches are supported on pillars. The swampy subsoil required a foundation with oak piles. Three of the pillars were built as river piers, two as receiving waters. Since the canalization of the Seseke as a result of subsidence, none of the pillars has stood in the water.
The narrow track layout on only two tracks on the five-arch bridge and the need for a parallel bridge construction are obstacles in a project that has been going on for decades to make the Dortmund-Hamm line four-track with separation of passenger and freight traffic or slower and faster rail traffic.
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Coordinates: 51 ° 35 ′ 28.7 " N , 7 ° 40 ′ 38.8" E