Elbe Bridge Riesa

The Elbe Bridge Riesa is a 347 m long railway bridge and spans the Elbe in Riesa at river kilometer 108.39. The structure is located on the Leipzig–Dresden railway line at track kilometer 66.46 and was one of the first major railway bridges in Germany in 1839.
As part of the construction of the Leipzig-Dresden railway, work began in August 1836 on the construction of a combined road and railway bridge over the Elbe near Riesa. The 340 m long structure had eleven stone piers founded on wooden pile caps. The superstructure consisted of wooden, curved trusses at the bottom, which were connected to the track girders by means of diagonal bracing. The construction was clad with boards to give the impression of a stone arch bridge. In the river area, there were six openings with clear spans of 28.24 m, and at the left bank, there were two arches with a clear span of 31.79 m each. The structure was commissioned on April 7, 1839. The construction costs amounted to 270,000 thalers. During the German War in 1866, two bridge arches were destroyed by a fire set by Saxon troops.

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