Elbe Bridge Vockerode

The Elbe Bridge Vockerode is part of the A9 motorway and spans the Elbe and the foreland east of Dessau near Vockerode. The 654 m long beam bridge was first built between 1937 and 1938 as a section of the Reichsautobahn Berlin–Leipzig. As part of the six-lane expansion of the A9 motorway, the old bridge was replaced by a new one between 1996 and 2000.
The first construction consisted of a steel superstructure with parallel-belted, riveted solid wall girders. The preliminary design came from the bridge office of the Supreme Construction Management of Motor Railways in Halle. The architect Paul Bonatz was involved in the execution design, who, at Adolf Hitler's personal request for special emphasis on the bridgeheads, designed a 40 m high, natural stone-clad tower with a viewing platform at the northern abutment. However, this was not completed due to problems with the procurement of Meissen granite. The tower, together with the atriums, was intended to draw the motorist's attention to the large structure. In the book Brücken (Bridges), published by Paul Bonatz and Fritz Leonhardt in 1951, the tower stump was retouched in the aerial photograph. The bridge, which cost 4.25 million Reichsmarks without stone cladding, was built between July 1937 and October 1938.

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