The Vapeur bridge Moerbeke

The Vapeur bridge is a lift bridge over the Moervaart in Moerbeke. The bridge is part of the now demolished railway line 77A, which connected Lokeren and Zelzate between 1867 and 1971. The driving deck was picked up as a platform between the four iron lifting towers; This was done manually with a winch and by using counterweights on each of the lifting towers. The current bridge dates from the interwar period and was rebuilt around 1945 and partially replaced after war damage caused by the Second World War. In 1971 the last freight train ran on railway line 77A, after which the railway bridge was converted into a road bridge, which until 2007 was then only used to collect the sugar beets, otherwise it is open for shipping on the Moervaart. The bridge was protected as a monument in 2001. Since 2016, there have been plans to put the bridge back into use as part of the bicycle highway between Moerbeke and Lokeren, during the redevelopment of the sugar factory site

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