LONGEST - Covered Wooden Bridge of Europe - Bad-Säckingen, BW, Germany
Posted by: 
fi67
N 47° 33.085 E 007° 57.088
32T E 421109 N 5266977
Alte Rheinbrücke between Bad Säckingen, Germany and Stein, Switzerland is the longest covered bridge in Europe and one of the oldest, too.
Waymark Code: WMBG65
Location: Baden-Württemberg, Germany
Date Posted: 05/18/2011
Views: 8
The wooden bridge of Bad Säckingen has a length of 206.5 meters; this exceeds the world famous Kapellbrücke in Luzern by 1.8 meters and makes it the longest covered bridge of Europe.
It was first documented in 1272, but it could be much older (all the older archives were destroyed in 1265). It had twelve wooden piles. It was destroyed several times during wars or in floods. The current construction is from 1699. It has six stone piles with irregular distances. There are three niches in the bridge, two of them have statues of saints (Nepomuk and Franz Xaver), the third one is used to show old pictures and information about the bridge and its history.
Until 1801 the municipalities on both sides were Austrian property, after the Napoleonic wars the south bank became Swiss and the north bank became part of Baden and later Germany, the bridge is an official country border since 1808.
In 1979 a new concrete bridge was built about half a kilometer downstream. Until then the wooden bridge was used by the motorized traffic as well, since 1979 it is for pedestrians and bikers only.
Type of documentation of superlative status: Various websites: e.g. Wikipedia, the official sites of Bad Säckingen and Stein
Location of coordinates: Center of the bridge, the border crossing
Web Site: [Web Link]
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