European Adventure 2019 - Transporter Bridges - Day 5

Day 5

Osten Transporter Bridge & The Rendsburg High Bridge

Osten Transporter Bridge

After breakfast we left the hotel to drive the shortish distance to Osten where we were to visit the fourth on the list of our Transporter Bridges. We were not dissapointeds when we got there.

The Osten Transporter Bridge is an 80-metre-long transporter bridge over the Oste River in Osten Lower Saxony, Germany. It was built in 1908-9 and was in regular use until 1974 and is now only used as tourist attraction. The bridge can transport 6 cars or 100 persons at one time across the river.

Osten is a small village just outside Henmoor, to the north west of Bremerhaven, and is home to what the locals purport to be, the world’s first transporter bridge. It actually predates the one across the Tees by a couple of years. However, the claim to be the first in the world is incorrect as the both the Rocheforte and Newport Bridges are older and the Bilbao bridge is in fact the oldest, being built in 1893.

Osten Transporter Bridge was built between 1908-09 to provide a crossing between Osten and Hemmoor that did not interfere with shipping on the River Oste. It is one of only 16 transporter bridges ever built to completion worldwide, and was the first of three in Germany: The three are: - Osten, Kiel (opened after Osten, but dismantled in 1923), and Rendsburg which is currently undergoing refurbishment work.

Unusually for a transporter bridge, the gondola is suspended from the moving trolley by way of solid steel latticework, instead of the usual cables. Large compared to the modest scale of the bridge, the gondola can transport either 100 people or six cars at a time.

The bridge operated on a regular basis until 1974 and was the only way to cross the River Oste at this point until the nearby road bridge was constructed. Now it provides a tourist attraction and a way for cyclists to cross the river on the Monks Way from Bremen to Fehmarn, an island in the Ostsee. It was listed as a Technical Monument in 1975. Taken out of service in 2001 because of extensive rust damage and recommissioned in 2006.

Osten Transporter Bridge is one of only eight survivors from the original 16, and of only seven transporter bridges still operational in their original form. A small museum devoted to the bridge can be found on the Osten side of the river.  Osten also has an amazing village church. Built in the 18th century in the baroque style, its interior is light, cool and spectacularly ornate.

When we arrived we were welcomed by a gentleman who turned out to be the Chairman of the Schwebefahre Osten - Henmoor.  His name was Karl Heinz Mannheim,  He was also the Gondola driver and asked if we would like to cross the river, so of course we did.  Being powered by electricity it was a very quiet operation and we smoothly crossed the river and later returned.  

Karl Heinz Brinkmann

After a visit the Museum and a walk along the river bank to take photographs, we left and continued our journey towards Rensburg.

The Journey

We were very surprised when our journey was  interrupted by a large expanse of water which turned out to be the Elbe river.  Luckily there was a regular ferry crossing which we were able to take and fifteen minutes later we were driving off on the other side and able to carry on to Rendsburg.  When we reached our destination we were met with the most impressive Rendsburg High Bridge.

The Rendsburg High Bridge

The Rendsburg High Bridge is a railway viaduct on the Neumünster–Flensburg line that also serves as a transporter bridge. The bridge crosses the Kiel Canal at Rendsburg in the German state of Schleswig-Holstein. It is federally owned through the Federal Water and Navigation Administration that also owns and runs the canal.

The Kaiser-Wilhelm-Kanal, now known as the Kiel Canal, was built between 1887 and 1895 cutting through existing traffic lines including the railway line between Neumünster and Flensburg for which two parallel swing bridges were built. In 1907 it was decided to enlarge the canal and in the course of this expansion major obstacles were also to be removed.

Main railway lines had right of way over ships on the canal and ships had to stop, losing about half an hour when a train passed. This was considered the major obstacle as the ships were unable to overtake and could pass each other at dedicated enlarged areas so that the traffic on the entire canal was hampered. The navy eventually pressed for a separation of traffic flows as closed bridges could delay flotillas by several hours.

In order to allow the railway line to pass above the canal, the new bridge was to have a clearance of 42 metres over the canal's mean water level. The existing tracks crossed the canal about 7 metres above the canal's water level, so the tracks had to be elevated by about 36.5 metres including additional 1.5 metres to accommodate the thickness of the lower girder. The required maximum incline of 1:150 (one-metre gain in altitude per 150 metres' distance) made it necessary to build elevated embankments and access bridges of about 5.5 km at each side.

The bridge was erected between 1911 and 1913 to a design by Friedrich Voss (1872–1953) and replaced the earlier swing bridges that had been operational.

Friedrich Voss

Rendsburg railway station can be found quite close at the lower level so the railway line is routed through a complete circular route loop on the north side of the canal.  This is known as the Rendsburg Loop.

The gondola, or suspended ferry as it is known locally  runs daily at fifteen minutes intervals to link the city of Rendsburg with the municipality of Osterrönfeld. The gondola is fourteen metres long and six metres wide, and travels six metres above the canal. In recent years the nominal transport capacity has been reduced from six to four automobiles in order to factor in increased car size and weight. While the gondola is equipped with nautical equipment such as radio, radar and life-rafts, there is no prerequisite for the operator to hold a master's licence for inland navigation.

One evening during a storm in January 1993, the gondola which was unmanned and unlit broke loose and was blown over the canal at which point it collided with a ship that was navigating the river. The resulting  damage to both the ship and gondola was only minor.

Of greater significance was an incident on 8 January 2016 when the Gondola collided with a passing cargo ship, the Evert Prahm. The Gondola was heavily damaged and was taken down and moved to a shipyard on March 15, 2016 for where it was to be assessed. At the moment a new Gondola is being constructed in Bavaria with installation planned for mid 2020.