Quaibrücke () is a road, tramway, pedestrian and bicycle bridge over the river

Limmat The Limmat is a river in Switzerland. The river commences at the outfall of Lake Zurich, in the southern part of the city of Zurich. From Zurich it flows in a northwesterly direction, continuing a further 35 km until it reaches the river A ...

, at the outflow of

Lake Zurich Lake Zurich (, ; ) is a lake in Switzerland, extending southeast of the city of Zurich. Depending on the context, Lake Zurich or can be used to describe the lake as a whole, or just that part of the lake downstream of the Hurden peninsula and ...

in the city of

Zurich Zurich (; ) is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich. , the municipality had 448,664 inhabitants. The ...

, Switzerland. It was built simultaneously with the construction of Zurich's new quays between 1881 and 1887.

Geography

The Quaibrücke is situated at the outflow of

and connects Bürkliplatz with

Bellevueplatz Bellevueplatz (, from the French language, French , meaning "beautiful sight") is a town square in the city of Zurich, Switzerland built in 1856. Named after the former on its north side, it is one of the nodal points for roads and public tra ...

, and thus the lake's left (or western) shore with the right (or eastern) shore. It is a nodal point of tram lines , , , and , as well of the road traffic between

General-Guisan-Quai Quaianalagen (German, plural; ; from ) or Seeuferanlagen (German, plural for lakeshore sites) on Lake Zurich is a series of lakefronts in Zurich, Switzerland. Inaugurated in 1887, the quaysides are considered an important milestone in the developm ...

and

Utoquai Quaianalagen (German, plural; ; from ) or Seeuferanlagen (German, plural for lakeshore sites) on Lake Zurich is a series of lakefronts in Zurich, Switzerland. Inaugurated in 1887, the quaysides are considered an important milestone in the developm ...

History

1880–1884

The Quaibrücke was erected between 1880 and 1884 under the management of Arnold Bürkli (1833–1894), the city engineer appointed in 1860. A modern land connection was urgently needed after an intense political campaign, as in 1893 Zurich was to be expanded by incorporating 11 neighboring

municipalities A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality' ...

. On May 18, 1873, the municipal legislature approved the construction of the Quaibrücke with a strong majority vote. In a vote on September 4, 1881, the municipalities of Enge (left shore),

Riesbach Riesbach is a district in the Swiss city of Zürich. It is District number 8. History The district comprises the quarters Seefeld, Mühlebach and Weinegg. Riesbach was formerly a municipality of its own, having been incorporated into Zürich ...

(right shore), and Zurich approved the financing loan. In the outcome of the conducted tender procedure for project planning works, four submitted offers were opened on September 5, 1881. As samples of the Zurich lake bed on the designated area revealed that it was covered by layers of mud above sandy clay loam deposits, the proposed

pile foundation A pile or piling is a vertical structural element of a deep foundation, driven or drilled deep into the ground at the building site. A deep foundation is a type of foundation that transfers building loads to the earth farther down from the ...

of the bridge was the decisive factor. Arnold Bürkli's proposal was inspired by solution implemented for the building of ''"Neue Börse"'' in

Basel Basel ( ; ), also known as Basle ( ), ; ; ; . is a city in northwestern Switzerland on the river Rhine (at the transition from the High Rhine, High to the Upper Rhine). Basel is Switzerland's List of cities in Switzerland, third-most-populo ...

(later known as ''Basler Handelsbank'' and ultimately the predecessor of

UBS AG UBS Group AG (stylized simply as UBS) is a multinational Investment banking, investment bank and financial services firm founded and based in Switzerland, with headquarters in both Zurich and Basel. It holds a strong foothold in all major fina ...

). On March 18, 1882, the contract was awarded to Zurich architect Emil Schmid-Kerez, in collaboration with Philipp Holzmann & Cie. from

Frankfurt Frankfurt am Main () is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Hesse. Its 773,068 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the List of cities in Germany by population, fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located in the forela ...

and Gebrüder Benckiser from

Pforzheim Pforzheim () is a List of cities and towns in Germany, city of over 125,000 inhabitants in the federal state of Baden-Württemberg, in the southwest of Germany. It is known for its jewelry and watch-making industry, and as such has gained the ...

. The project group undertook to complete the construction of a 20 meter wide bridge (12 meters of

lane In road transport, a lane is part of a roadway that is designated to be used by a single line of vehicles to control and guide drivers and reduce traffic conflicts. Most public roads (highways) have at least two lanes, one for traffic in eac ...

s and 4 meters of

sidewalk A sidewalk (North American English), pavement (British English, South African English), or footpath (Hiberno-English, Irish English, Indian English, Australian English, New Zealand English) is a path along the side of a road. Usually constr ...

on each side) on or before July 15, 1883, for a payment of CHF 860'000. The Quaibrücke was built simultaneously with the Utoquai and General-Guisan-Quai on the two shores of Lake Zurich, but the bridge was finished half a year earlier. Since the bridge blocked traffic onto the Limmat, the berth of the ZSG Zürichsee-Schifffahrtsgesellschaft had to be moved from the

Bauschänzli Bauschänzli is an artificial island, town square, and public park in Zürich, Switzerland. Bauschänzli (diminutive of "construction entrenchment") is one of the last remains of the Baroque fortifications of Zürich which began in 1642. The nei ...

island to the present Bürkliterrasse.

1930s–1940s

In 1932, the road surface was renewed. In view of the Swiss National Exhibition 1939 and expected increase in traffic, the city council envisaged to further develop Bellevueplatz and the Quaibrücke, and the width of the bridge was increased to 28.5 meters in 1939. Upon the German invasion of Poland in

WWII World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

and as part of the Zurich lakefront, two machine gun

bunkers A bunker is a defensive military fortification designed to protect people and valued materials from falling bombs, artillery, or other attacks. Bunkers are almost always underground, in contrast to blockhouses which are mostly above ground. T ...

were built in the 1940s, which are still preserved at their original sites at Limmatquai and Bürkliterrasse. The bunker at Bürkliplatz was designed by the ''Stadtkommando Zürich'' (Zurich City Commando) as a concrete machine gun stand in the wall of Quaybrücke and was erected during May and June 1940 in the form of a gallery with a sequence of five battle rooms (''"Kampfräume"'') lined up next to each other. Due to its layout of five ''Kampfräume'' and the central location in the very heart of Zurich, the bunker was nicknamed the ''"5-Zimmer-Villa"'' ("five-bedroom villa"). The site was declassified in March, 2004.

1983–1984

Due to increasing maintenance costs, the original bridge had to be replaced in 1984. A new bridge was built parallel to the old bridge between 1983 and 1984 on steel girders. The weekend of March 16-17, 1984 traffic was stopped and the old bridge was moved onto steel beams atop piles driven into the lake. It took 15 hours in total to move the old bridge and replace it with a

concrete slab A concrete slab is a common structural element of modern buildings, consisting of a flat, horizontal surface made of cast concrete. Steel- reinforced slabs, typically between 100 and 500 mm thick, are most often used to construct floors and ...

. Construction costs totaled 18 million CHF, and the replacement increased the width of the bridge to 30.5 meters. Initiatives to redesign the old bridge as a pedestrian zone were rejected.

2015

Between April and November 2015 further refurbishment works were completed, with 50 cm wide steel structures added to both sides of the bridge, allowing the existing combination masts (lighting poles and guy masts) to be relocated and to free up space for pedestrian and bicycle paths.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Quaibrucke Bridges in Zurich Bunkers in Switzerland Altstadt (Zurich) Bridges completed in 1884 Bridges over the Limmat Road bridges in Switzerland Railway bridges in Switzerland Pedestrian bridges in Switzerland Lake Zurich 19th-century architecture in Switzerland