Hanzeboog

The Hanzeboog is a railway bridge over the IJssel near Zwolle in the Dutch province of Overijssel on the border with the province of Gelderland. It transmits both the historic Centraalspoorweg and the Hanzelijn, which opened in 2012.

The first plans for a railway connection between Utrecht and Zwolle were drawn up as early as 1859. In 1864, the Nederlandse Centraal Spoorweg Maatschappij completed the construction of a single-track railway bridge, so that it could be used for train traffic from 21 May 1864. It was officially put into operation on 6 June 1864, the day of the opening of the Hattemerbroek–Zwolle section of the Centraalspoorweg. From 1920 the bridge was managed by the Staatsspoorwegen, which has belonged to the Nederlandse Spoorwegen since 1938. In the 1930s, a new double-track bridge, consisting of two parallel structures, was built on piers next to the existing bridge, so that trains could now pass the IJssel over two lanes. The old bridge, which had been too narrow for the increasing train traffic and could no longer withstand the load, was shut down and on January 21, 1935, the first trains crossed the new bridge. In 1940, the Dutch army blew up the bridge in the course of the Dutch surrender during the Second World War, and five years later the rebuilt structure was smashed again by German soldiers. After the end of the World War, the bridge was provisionally restored from the remains. The northern construction was ceremoniously put into use as early as May 1946, while the southern part could only be reconstructed in 1949 and 1950. Since the bridge had to be regularly inspected after 60 years and another railway line was to run over the bridge with the construction of the Hanzelijn, a new construction became necessary. On 14 June 2011, the inauguration of the new bridge with the name Hanzeboog took place in reference to the former Hanseatic city of Zwolle.

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