Cool engineering

[da]

This is a Cool Thing. A water bridge across the River Elbe. It connects two canals, one in each of the former East and West Germany. It's nearly a kilometer long and they've been trying to build it since 1919, but a couple of world wars and partition of the country kinda got in the way.

It's got 24,000 metric tons of steel and 68,000 cubic meters of concrete, and took a mere 500 million Euros and six years to build (after the 80-year planning stage, of course).

It's just the idea of it that excites me- we've got two very convenient canals, but there's this unpredictable river smack dab in the way. I know, let's build a bridge!

Comments

[mynatt.livejournal.com]

The first time I saw that photo, I thought "why the hell don't they just sail across the river?" But that Snopes article answered my question.

Crazy Germans.

[dpolicar]

It would be cooler if it were a water bridge over a chasm.

[da-lj.livejournal.com]

*What?*

Well, OK. I give you:

The Llangollen Wharf Aqueduct, also known as the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct.



So. Yes, it's towering, and yes, it features [t]he innovative use of an iron trough – sealed with Welsh flannel boiled in sugar and using an ox-blood mortar [which] allowed the engineers to create what remains the highest navigable aqueduct in the world.

But it's all for tourists. It just isn't practical.

I personally think the German one is much cooler.

[cyanpill.livejournal.com]

At first I was confuised by the depth. Maybe if a big barge was going under it would be clearer.... Granted, that boat down there is likely larger the the ones on top, but you can't see it right away. And they are the same color too.

[da-lj.livejournal.com]

Hey, I looked for better pictures. :)

Maybe this calls for a field-trip.

[arcticturtle.livejournal.com]

Whoah. How gloriously wrong.

Are there long cloverleaf loops for barges that want to switch from canal to river?

[da-lj.livejournal.com]

What a wonderful mental image that is.

...Nah... I'm sure they just drop the barges over the side of the bridge...