Germany Cologne Swing Bridge / Drehbrücke im Rheinauhafen

The Cologne swing bridge over the Rheinauhafen on the left bank of the Rhine between the Malakoff Tower and the Imhoff Chocolate Museum is Cologne's oldest bridge over the Rhine water. It was opened on August 5, 1896, when the branch of the Rhine was expanded into a port. The industrial monument was overhauled in 1986/87 and today belongs to the Imhoff Chocolate Museum Foundation, to which it also grants access. The hydraulic repairs carried out in 1984 caused costs of almost 1 million DM.

The bridge is a steel truss bridge with spans of 28.334 m on the long arm and 18.30 m on the short arm. The width is 10 m, of which 5 m for the roadway. To compensate for the unequal weights, the short arm was covered with stone plaster, the long one with wooden plaster. The turning device is operated by electro-hydraulic control with a pressure of 5 MPa in the Malakoff tower (from 1850). The pressure originally came from a power plant built for the entire port, which was expanded between 1892 and 1898. Before the rotation, the bridge is raised by 11.2 cm. The passage height is 8.20 m above the Cologne level zero.