The Elster Viaduct is a railway bridge in the German state of Saxony

Saxony

The Free State of Saxony is a landlocked state of Germany, contingent with Brandenburg, Saxony Anhalt, Thuringia, Bavaria, the Czech Republic and Poland. It is the tenth-largest German state in area, with of Germany's sixteen states....

. It carries the Leipzig–Hof line near Jocketa

Pöhl

Pöhl is a municipality in the Vogtlandkreis district, in Saxony, Germany....

 over the valley of the Weiße Elster

Weiße Elster

The White Elster or Weisse Elster is a long river in central Europe, right tributary of the Saale. Its source is in the westernmost part of the Czech Republic, near Aš. After a few kilometres, it flows into eastern Germany...

. After the Göltzsch Viaduct

Göltzsch Viaduct

The Göltzsch Viaduct is a railway bridge in Germany. It is the largest brick-built bridge in the world, and for a time it was the tallest railway bridge in the world. It spans the valley of the Göltzsch River between Mylau and Netzschkau, around east of Reichenbach im Vogtland in the German Free...

 (Göltzschtalbrücke) it is the second largest brick bridge in the world. The Elster Valley Railway

Elster Valley Railway

The Elster Valley Railway is a main railway line in the German federal states of Thuringia and Saxony that runs along the valley of the White Elster from Gera via Greiz and Plauen to Weischlitz.- History :...

 passes under the 68 metre-high bridge.

History

The viaduct was built in the course of the construction of the Leipzig–Hof line of the Saxon-Bavarian State Railway (Sächsisch-Bayerische Staatseisenbahn). The foundation stone was laid on 7 November 1846. Up to 800 workers worked on the bridge from 1846 to 1851, laying 12 million bricks. In contrast to the Göltzsch Viaduct, which is only nine metres higher, it was built with normally shaped arches on only two levels. The lower level has five piers, four of which are built as double piers. The foundations of the piers and the deck were built out of slabs of granite.

In the last days of the Second World War on 16 April 1945 the German Wehrmacht

Wehrmacht

The Wehrmacht – from , to defend and , the might/power) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the Heer , the Kriegsmarine and the Luftwaffe .-Origin and use of the term:...

partially demolished the bridge. This meant that trains from the southwest could only run as far as Röttis and from the northeast only as far as Jocketa. A temporary bridge was erected by attaching a steel truss to the remains of the demolished central supporting pier, which supported the girders of a timber bridge. This important bridge was reopened to traffic in February 1946. The final reconstruction of the two collapsed masonry brick arches was completed in October 1950.

The top of the lower arches carries a hiking trail. There are plaques on this level showing the reconstruction after the Second World War.

Specifications

Height	68 metres on 2 levels
Length	279 m, maximum span of arches: 31.1 m
Number of bricks	12,323,000
Brick masonry	31,237 m³
Stone masonry	21,579 m³

External links