The Ostbahnbrücke is a railway bridge over the
Donaukanal
The Donaukanal (, ''Danube Canal'') is a former arm of the river Danube, now regulated as a water channel (since 1598), within the city of Vienna, Austria. It is long and, unlike the Danube itself, it borders Vienna's city centre, Innere St ...
in
Vienna
Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...
. It unites the districts of
Simmering
Simmering is a food preparation technique by which foods are cooked in hot liquids kept just below the boiling point of water (lower than ) and above poaching temperature (higher than ). To create a steady simmer, a liquid is brought to a boil, ...
and
Leopoldstadt
Leopoldstadt (; ; "Leopold-Town") is the 2nd municipal district of Vienna () in Austria. there are 103,233 inhabitants over . It is situated in the heart of the city and, together with Brigittenau (20th district), forms a large island surrou ...
.
The Ostbahnbrücke is located near the power station in Simmering and the
Gasometer
A gas holder or gasholder, also known as a gasometer, is a large container in which natural gas or town gas (coal gas or formerly also water gas) is natural gas storage, stored near atmospheric pressure at room temperature, ambient temperatures. ...
.
History
The Ostbahnbrücke was designed by
Anton Battig
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*Anton (given name), a list of people with the given name
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*Anton Municipality, Bulgaria
**Anton, Sofia Province, a village
*Antón District, Panama
**Antón, ...
and
August Friedrich Nathanael Köstlin. It was constructed in 1870 by the German company C. Harkort and is a
truss
A truss is an assembly of ''members'' such as Beam (structure), beams, connected by ''nodes'', that creates a rigid structure.
In engineering, a truss is a structure that "consists of two-force members only, where the members are organized so ...
bridge supporting two sets of rails.
In 1939, the Ostbahnbrücke was strengthened by the
Nazi
Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...
s, in order to withhold the increased strain being placed on the bridge by heavier freight transports. The imminent war was probably also a motivation for this work, as it would require greater levels of freight transport. The bridge was blown up during the April 1945
Vienna Offensive
The Vienna offensive was an offensive launched by the Soviet 2nd and 3rd Ukrainian Fronts in order to capture Vienna, Austria, during World War II. The offensive lasted from 16 March to 15 April 1945. After several days of street-to-street figh ...
.
The Ostbahnbrücke was rebuilt in 1946. It is not known whether the narrow footpath beside the bridge existed before this time. In its publication “Querungen – Brücken-Stadt-Wien” (''Crossings – Bridges – City – Vienna''), the City of Vienna's department with responsibility for the city's bridges (Magistratsabteilung 29) lists the footpath as a separate structure (Object number 0207 0).
References
*
Walter Hufnagel
Walter may refer to:
People and fictional characters
* Walter (name), including a list of people and fictional and mythical characters with the given name or surname
* Little Walter, American blues harmonica player Marion Walter Jacobs (1930–19 ...
(Herausgeber): „''Querungen – Brücken-Stadt-Wien''“,