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Blue Wonder

Loschwitzer Brücke
Blaues Wunder
Loschwitzer Brücke - Blaues Wunder 1.jpg
Carries Motor vehicles (up to 15 tonnes), trams (until 1985), pedestrians and bicycles
Crosses Elbe
Locale Dresden (BlasewitzLoschwitz)
Official name Loschwitzer Brücke
König-Albert-Brücke (until 1912)
Maintained by Straßen- und Tiefbauamt Dresden
Characteristics
Design Cantilever
Total length 280 metres (920 ft)
Width 12 metres (39 ft)
Longest span 146 metres (479 ft)
History
Designer Claus Koepcke
Hans Manfred Krüger
Opened July 15, 1893
Statistics
Toll free since 1923

Loschwitz Bridge (Loschwitzer Brücke) is a cantilever truss bridge over the river Elbe in Dresden the capital of Saxony in Germany. It connects the city districts of Blasewitz and Loschwitz, two affluent residential areas, which around 1900 were amongst the most expensive in Europe. It is located close to Standseilbahn Dresden funicular railway and the world's oldest suspension railway Schwebebahn Dresden, as well as near the Dresden TV tower. The bridge is colloquial referred to as Blaues Wunder. This common name supposedly referred to the bridge's original blue colour and being seen as a technological miracle at the time; alternatively it may have alluded to the sceptical view of commentators at the time about the construction, as contained in the idiomatic phrase in German (ein blaues Wunder erleben) "to experience an unpleasant surprise".

After a two-year construction time, the bridge was completed in 1893 at a cost of 2.25 million Goldmarks and named König-Albert-Brücke in honor of King Albert of Saxony. In the 19th century it was a masterpiece of technology to build a bridge of this length without river piers supporting it. Today its technology is less of a miracle but it is a much-loved symbol of the city.

The original bridge toll was renounced during the 1923 hyperinflation. In the last days of World War II two people saved the bridge from being blown up by an SS unit, by cutting the detonator wires to the explosives. Preserved in its original construction, the advanced age of the structure in recent years has led to some traffic limiting. It was until the opening of the Waldschlösschenbrücke on 26 August 2013 the only Elbe crossing in Dresden East of the city centre.


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