Ludendorff Bridge

Ludendorff Bridge Ludendorff-Brücke
The bridge seen from the bank of the Rhine before its March 1945 collapse
Coordinates	50°34′45″N 7°14′39″E / 50.579167°N 7.244167°E / 50.579167; 7.244167
Carries	Railways
Crosses	River Rhine
Locale	Rhineland-Palatinate
Official name	Ludendorff Bridge
Other name(s)	Bridge at Remagen
Characteristics
Design	through arch bridge
Material	Iron
Total length	325 m (355 yd)
Piers in water	Two
History
Designer	Karl Wiener
Constructed by	Grün & Bilfinger
Construction begin	1916
Construction end	1919
Collapsed	1945

The Ludendorff Bridge (sometimes referred to as the Bridge at Remagen) was in early March 1945 one of two remaining bridges across the River Rhine in Germany when it was captured during the Battle of Remagen by United States Army forces during the closing weeks of World War II. Built in World War I to help deliver reinforcements and supplies to the German troops on the Western Front, it connected Remagen on the west bank and the village of Erpel on the eastern side between two hills flanking the river.

At the end of Operation Lumberjack (March 1–7, 1945), the troops of the American 1st Army approached Remagen and were surprised to find that the bridge was still standing. Its capture enabled the U.S. Army to establish a bridgehead on the eastern side of the Rhine. After the U.S. forces captured the bridge, German forces tried to destroy it multiple times until it collapsed on March 17, 1945, ten days after it was captured, killing 28 U.S. Army Engineers. While it stood, the bridge enabled the U.S. Army to deploy 25,000 troops, six Army divisions, with many tanks, artillery pieces and trucks, across the Rhine. It was never rebuilt. The towers on the west bank were converted into a museum and the towers on the east bank are a performing art space.

Remagen is located close to and south of the city of Bonn. The town of Remagen had been founded by the Romans about 2,000 years earlier. The town had been destroyed multiple times and rebuilt each time. Under the Schlieffen Plan, a bridge was planned to be built here in 1912, as well as bridges in Engers and Rudesheim.

German General Erich Ludendorff was a key advocate for building this bridge during World War I and it was named after him. It was designed to connect the Right Rhine Railway, the Left Rhine Railway and the Ahr Valley Railway (Ahrtalbahn) and carry troops and supplies to the Western Front. It was designed by . It was constructed between 1916 and 1919, using Russian prisoners of war as labor, and carried two railway lines and two pedestrian catwalks on either side. Work on the bridge pillars and arches was done by leading construction companies Grün & Bilfinger with the steel bridge built by MAN-Werk Gustavsburg.