Bailey Bridge

This bridge over the Demer, of the Bailey bridge type, was built in the 1950s. This place was a crossing of the Demer between Werchter and Rotselaar. Until the 1940s this was a small crossing, called the "Barge". The current so-called "Soldier's Bridge" was built in the early 1950s by engineer soldiers as an exercise.

Bailey bridges are steel truss bridges designed by the English engineer Donald Coleman Bailey (1901-1985). The type was designed in 1940 as a military emergency bridge that were often built especially at the end of and after World War II. It is a type of truss bridge made up of panels and crossbars that are connected to each other. They were designed to be built on manpower only as a temporary bridge.

Jan Rymenams