The Enneüs Heerma Bridge () is a bridge in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

located in the new neighbourhood of

IJburg IJburg () is a residential neighbourhood under construction in Amsterdam, Netherlands. It is situated in the IJmeer and is being built on artificial islands which have been raised from the lake. The Haveneiland, Rieteilanden, Steigereiland and C ...

, built on seven artificial islands in the

IJmeer The IJmeer is a ' bordering lake' (''Randmeer'') in the Netherlands straddling the provinces of North Holland and Flevoland. Namely, it is the southeastern section of the Markermeer. It is an important habitat for birds such as the tufted duck an ...

. It connects the district of

Zeeburgereiland The Zeeburgereiland is a triangle, triangular island on the east side of Amsterdam, in the Dutch province of North Holland. It lies between the Oranje Locks and the and on the east is bordered by the IJ (Amsterdam), IJ. Formerly an industrial ar ...

, on the eastern edge of the city, with

Steigereiland Steigereiland is a neighborhood of Amsterdam, Netherlands. Steigereiland is the first of the IJburg Islands when approaching from central Amsterdam. The island comprises three neighbourhoods - Noodbuurt, Zuidbuurt and Waterbuurt - the last of whi ...

, to the south. The bridge is named after

Enneüs Heerma Enneüs "Inne" Heerma (23 December 1944 – 1 March 1999) was a Dutch politician of the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA) party and management consultant. Heerma applied at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam in July 1963 majoring in Political sci ...

, who served as Leader of the

Christian Democratic Appeal The Christian Democratic Appeal ( , CDA) is a Christian democratic and conservative political party in the Netherlands. Formed as a federation in 1975 by the Catholic People's Party, the Anti-Revolutionary Party, and the Christian Historical ...

, alderman in Amsterdam and State Secretary twice under Prime Minister

Ruud Lubbers Rudolphus Franciscus Marie "Ruud" Lubbers (; 7 May 1939 – 14 February 2018) was a Dutch politician, diplomat and businessman who served as prime minister of the Netherlands from 1982 to 1994, and as United Nations High Commissioner for Refug ...

. Alongside the Nescio Bridge which is a cycle and footbridge connecting IJburg to East Amsterdam, it is one of the neighbourhood's best known landmarks.

Construction

Made of

steel Steel is an alloy of iron and carbon that demonstrates improved mechanical properties compared to the pure form of iron. Due to steel's high Young's modulus, elastic modulus, Yield (engineering), yield strength, Fracture, fracture strength a ...

, with a length of , a width of , and a height of , the suspended deck of the bridge serves to carry a traffic road and a

light rail Light rail (or light rail transit, abbreviated to LRT) is a form of passenger urban rail transit that uses rolling stock derived from tram technology National Conference of the Transportation Research Board while also having some features from ...

(tram) line. It is the main connection between

and the A10 and can be reached by tram 26, the

IJtram Amsterdam tram line 26, popularly known as the IJtram, is a Amsterdam Tram, tram line operating between Amsterdam Centraal station and the IJburg district in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. , the IJtram was the busiest tram line in Amsterdam, carryin ...

, from

Amsterdam Centraal station Amsterdam Centraal station ( ; Railway stations in the Netherlands, abbreviation: Asd) is the largest railway station in Amsterdam, North Holland, the Netherlands. A major international Rail transport, railway hub, it is used by 192,000 passeng ...

. Completed in 2001, the bridge was designed by

Grimshaw Architects Grimshaw Architects (formerly Nicholas Grimshaw & Partners) is an architectural firm based in London. Founded in 1980 by Nicholas Grimshaw, the firm was one of the pioneers of high-tech architecture. In particular, they are known for their des ...

. The classic gables of

’s canal houses inspired the arches and lateral gables and the wavy patterns refer to water. The segmented appearance is based on the skeleton of a crab. The shallowness of the water at the bridge site made it impossible to use floating cranes to lift the pre-assembled arches of the bridge into position during construction. The problem was solved by using pontoons and crawler cranes.

External links

Architectural firm website''www.ijburg.nu'', Who is Enneus Heerma? Discussion about the bridge
(in Dutch) * {{DEFAULTSORT:Enneus Heerma Bridge Bridges completed in 2001 Road bridges in the Netherlands Steel bridges in the Netherlands Bridges in Amsterdam Nicholas Grimshaw buildings