Slauerhoffbrug
Thursday, 22nd January 2009 by Alex Turnbull
Here in the Netherlands we find a very unusual kind of bridge.
Like many small bridges, the bright blue and yellow Slauerhoffbrug is required to retract out of the way to let boats pass by. Unfortunately the Google Earth images were captured while the bridge was acting as a road, so other than a strange structure bolted on the side, it isn't yet clear why we'd want to link to it...
Switch over to Bird's Eye View on Live Maps however, and we suddenly see what makes this bridge so unusual! The middle section of the road is contained on a massive arm that swings upwards, pulling the middle of the bridge through 90 degrees, way up into the air! (Ground-level picture)
You can also see that due to the position of the swinging arm of the bridge, there's a large gap in the surface of the road when the bridge is in the open position. This gap is filled by the arm when the bridge is open to traffic, and the arm even has road markings on it.
Built in 2000, the Slauerhoffbrug is a kind of cantilevered drawbridge, but skewed to one side. Apparently it was built like this so that the mechanism could be built beside the road without interrupting the flow of traffic - except for a few days at the end of the construction.
Many thanks to Wojtek Kutyla.
About the author
Alex has decided that his title will be Senior Vice President of Stuff.
What’s so unusual about the road markings on the arm? When the arm is down, it is part of the road, so road markings are what I’d expect ot be on it. The presence of railroad tracks however would be remarkable 😉
Best………….bridge……………….ever?
@CM – I personally love this bridge, it’s just so… squooshy! Er..
There is a very cool spinning bridge between Little Currant and Goat Island in northern Ontario Canada.