The Pfrimm Viaduct (german: Pfrimmtalviadukt), colloquially also called the Marnheim Bridge (''Marnheimer Brücke''), was a railway bridge near Marnheim in the county of Donnersbergkreis in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate. It was built as a stone

arch An arch is a vertical curved structure that spans an elevated space and may or may not support the weight above it, or in case of a horizontal arch like an arch dam, the hydrostatic pressure against it. Arches may be synonymous with vaul ...

and truss bridge from 1872 to 1874, was 260 metres long and 30 metres high, and carried the Donnersberg Railway from Hungerberg over the valley of the

Pfrimm The Pfrimm is a , left or western tributary of the Rhine in the Rhineland-Palatinate (Germany). Course The Pfrimm rises in the southern part of the Donnersbergkreis. Its spring lies in the northern part of the Palatinate Forest Nature Park, ...

to the

Zeller Valley Railway References External links StreckeninformationenFörderverein Eistalbahn e. V.– Fahrplaninformationen, Betriebsführung und Instandhaltung Infrastrukturbetreiber der Strecke Railway lines in Rhineland-Palatinate North Palatinate Palatinate ...

, which is only open at weekends today. The bridge is a

protected monument In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

and forms the "Gateway to the

Zellertal Zellertal is a municipality in the Donnersbergkreis district, in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. The villages of , Harxheim and Niefernheim form Zellertal. Zellertal is in Zellertal region, which in turn is part of the Palatinate wine region an ...

" (''Tor zum Zellertal'').

Location

The viaduct was built east of Marnheim. The remains of its northern stone arch bridge are located on the northeastern edge of the village at about . It is 45 metres south of the B 47 and 200 metres north of the confluence of the ''Goldbrunnengraben'' ''(Goldbrunnenbächlein)'' and the Rhine tributary, the Pfrimm, and carries a field track. About 240 metres south-southeast of the centre of the northern part of the bridge at a height of about near the south bank of the Pfrimm are stone pier remains of the southern abutment.

History and description

The Pfrimm Viaduct was built as a 260-metre-long and 30-metre-high stone

and truss bridge with a superstructure of lattice and steel girder design between the years 1872 and 1874. Its bridge piers were built on post foundations. On 20 March 1945, Shortly before the end of the Second World War the bridge was blown up by withdrawing Wehrmacht troops. The link to Mainz via

Alzey Alzey () is a ''Verband''-free town – one belonging to no ''Verbandsgemeinde'' – in the Alzey-Worms district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is the fifth-largest town in Rhenish Hesse, after Mainz, Worms, Germany, Worms, Ingelheim am Rhein ...

was thus cut. After the war there were attempts to rebuild the viaduct, but they foundered – as did a new route without a viaduct – due to the cost. In addition the railway had transferred services to buses. Since the construction of the B 47 north of the viaduct, when the adjoining railway embankment (in the upper photograph the formerly covered stones are still visible during related work) was removed, the northern bridge remains have stood isolated in the open.

References

''Geschichte der Marnheimer Eisenbahn''
, at kirchheimbolanden.de
in ''Rundgang'', at kirchheimbolanden.de Klaus D. Holzborn: ''Eisenbahn-Reviere Palatinate'', Verlag Transpress, Berlin, 1993,

External links

at kirchheimbolanden.de

in ''Rundgang'', at kirchheimbolanden.de {{Coordinate , NS=49/38/16/N , EW=8/2/49.1/E , region=DE-RP , type=landmark 1870s architecture Buildings and structures demolished in 1945 Railway bridges in Germany bridges in Rhineland-Palatinate Heritage sites in Rhineland-Palatinate Donnersbergkreis