Mangfall Bridge

The Mangfall Bridge is a motorway bridge across the valley of the Mangfall north of Weyarn in Upper Bavaria, Germany, which carries Bundesautobahn 8 between Munich and Rosenheim. The original bridge, designed by German Bestelmeyer, opened in January 1936 as one of the first large bridges in the Reichsautobahn system and was influential in its design. Destroyed at the end of World War II, this bridge was replaced with a temporary structure in 1948; the current bridge consists of a replacement built in 1958–60 to a design by Gerd Lohmer and Ulrich Finsterwalder and a second span for traffic in one direction which was added in the late 1970s when the autobahn was widened to six lanes.

The original bridge was one of the first large bridges constructed for the Reichsautobahn system under the Third Reich, and was the model for many that followed. It was a steel beam bridge 319 metres (1,047 ft) long, 108 metres (354 ft) wide and carried on two double pylons of reinforced concrete 68 metres (223 ft) high.Hitler selected German Bestelmeyer's design; with a single deck and only two massive support pylons, in concrete rather than steel, it was preferred on aesthetic grounds, and a model of one of the pylons dominated the Reichsautobahn section of the Gibt mir vier Jahre Zeit (Give me four years) exhibition of Nazi achievements in 1937. Its construction was a particularly favoured topic of the painters commissioned by Fritz Todt to document the Reichsautobahn, and also of documentary filmmakers, and the finished bridge was also one of the Reichsautobahn scenes depicted on a postage stamp in 1936. It was the most successful steel bridge on the Reichsautobahn and served as a model for several that followed.

Construction began in March 1934 and was mainly carried out by MAN SE of Gustavsburg. Completion of the two pylons was celebrated on 24 November. On 6 January 1936, Hitler was first to drive across the bridge. The autobahn segment was opened to traffic on 11 January.

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