Cologne Rodenkirchen Bridge

The Cologne Rodenkirchen Bridge is a steel suspension bridge over the Rhine located in Cologne, Germany.[1] Completed in 1954, it has a main span of 378 metres. It was named after the Cologne district of Rodenkirchen.

aerial view from the south; Rodenkirchen in the foreground, Poll in the background
close up view

Planning and construction

It was built from 1938 to 1941, after the design of Paul Bonatz and the planning of Fritz Leonhardt, for the Autobahn Cologne-Aachen. Today the Bundesautobahn 4 is the southern wing of the Cologne Beltway.

The bridge was destroyed due to an airstrike on 14 January 1945.

It was rebuilt from 1952 to 1954, with the old pylons re-used. The new bridge was only built from 3350 tons of steel, unlike the old bridge with 6100 tons.

Because of the increasing traffic on the bridge, in 1990 it was expanded with an equal bridge, sharing the middle cable with the 1954 bridge. The expansion was finished in 1995.

gollark: How good*.
gollark: So where are they cooking things?
gollark: Make their computer say to let you in like in that one xkcd.
gollark: Why is it not continuously ultrahypercrowded? What?
gollark: No. It's too warm.

References
  1. Taylor, R. R. (1974). The word in stone: The role of architecture in the national socialist ideology. University of California Press. p. 203.

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