Approaches in Design, Prefabrication and Assembly of the Hamelin Chain Bridge, 1836-38
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Proceedings of the First International Congress on Construction History, Madrid, 20th-24th January 2003, ed. S. Huerta, Madrid: I. Juan de Herrera, SEdHC, ETSAM, A. E. Benvenuto, COAM, F. Dragados, 2003. A matter to be considered in various directions: Approaches in design, prefabrication and assembly of the Hamelin Chain Bridge, 1836-38 Michael Mende DEMANDS OF AN INCREASING TRAFFIC transport on the road from Hanover via Northeim and Gottingen to Cassel or destinations in Thuringia made In Oecember 1817, only three years after Hanover approximately 6,000 tons ayear, while a little more had been restituted as kingdom within the German than 2,000 ton s annually were crossing the Weser at Confederation created as a result of the Vienna Hamelin to get their destinations in Lippe or eastern Congress, Victor Leberecht Prott (1781-1857) as an Westphalia (von Reden 1839,2: 301 and 321). In the engineer lieutenant colonel the technical chief of the long term Hanoverian efforts in road construction General Board of Roads presented his general road would shift the main link between the seaports of construction plan (Hindelang an Walther 1989, 14). Hamburg or Bremen and trading centers like His proposal was to improve the communication in Frankfurt on the Main or Nuremberg from its that kingdom by laying out a net finally comprising traditional route via Brunswick more to the west about 3000 km of main roads and more than 2000 km focusing the capital and the Leine valley (Scholl of secondary or connecting roads. At this moment 1978, 46). Following a policy of pushing long only 920 km of these roads being composed of a distance transit routes Hanover tried to keep the bottoming between kerbstones and paved with sand, goods transport as long as possible within the borders gravel, or limestone were opened to traffic. of her territory. Hoping for raising benefits from a In the former electorate of Hanover road transit trade dragged out in such a way, the kingdom construction had started during the 1760s just after was going to convert roads into a new kind of staples the Seven Years' War. Between 1764 and the early (Rauers 1913,29 and 42). 1780s three main lines were going to be completed Before the Hanoverian exchequer, however, would under supervision of the Royal Electoral General be able to meet those expectations, heavy investments Intendance of Road Construction established by a were to be made not at least into bridge building. As grant of George III. The reason for taking up the each of the three 18th century roads merely had to roadworks was of both military and commercial cross brooks or creeks, for the time only small stone concern (Baldermann 1968, 75). Whereas the roads arch bridge s would have become necessary. For running from the capital to the fortified cities of passing rivers like the Rhume at Northeim, the Werra Hamelin and Nienburg watching the river Weser at Munden, or the Weser at Nienburg and Hamelin were more of military importance, the road passing furthermore existent bridges could be used, but which on its run south to Cassel the Hanoverian towns of in 1817 each still had remained in the property of Einbeck, Northeim, Gottingen, and Munden, would those municipalities. Albeit they were raising tolls, be more of commercial interest. About 1830 goods the bridges, however, lacked constant maintenance 1418 Michae1 Mende and therefore appeared in more or less a rather bad Hessian exclave of 5chaumburg, and at Minden in condition. Largely of medieval origin almost every of Prussian Westphalia, while the bridge at Hoxter these stone arch bridges by that time even had upstreams in the same province since 1673 had kept undergone considerable decay. Damages caused by ruined (Grunsky 1998, 108). heavy ice motion, flood, or military action during the Napoleonic wars had added to. In particular most bridge s had lost at least one of their vaults and ADOPTlNG A NEW TVPE OF BRIDGE CONSTRUCTlON sometimes also one or, Jike that at Hamelin, even two of the piers. Because the municipal budgets could not According to the agreements made among these atford more, strut frames had to compensate for. states by the Weser Navigation Act non e of these Albeit better than a ferry such structures, as chosen bridges should present an obstacle to shipping traffic. for the bridge s at Northeim, Nienburg, and HameJin, Albeit first attempts to sail by steam boat had been as well as at Minden, the Prussian fortress watching made in 1816, both passenger traffic and goods the river Weser downstreams Porta Westfalica, were transport on barges towed by a paddle wheel tug nothing more than rather a stop gap solution. If one of sustainedly would become successful only since the them fully would have to be replaced by a new late 1830s. Within a few years, however, Hamelin structure, first the state had to take command. In the then would become the dominating location for steam case of Hanover this meant that the General Board of navigation upstream of Bremen. Compared with the Roads then would become responsible for the entire barges of the trains until the mid 19th century project, the design as well as construction and further generally used for goods transport, the paddle wheel maintenance or frequent repair. passenger boats and tugs would be much broader. 500n after the French occupation troops had Considering the design of a new bridge that meant withdrawn from Northwest Germany the bridge at above all to diminish the number of its piers and so to Hamelin anew would have to undergo at least widen its openings, both by the way also a precaution sweeping repair, a measure which had become against damages by heavy flooding or ice motion. At unevitable as Hanover by the agreements of the Hamelin this aspect was of particular importance Vienna Congress was obliged to take care of the because both the holm deviding the river Weser into improvements necessary to enable both an two arms and the falls at their entrance. Controlled by unrestrained navigation on the river Weser and an weirs across both arms these falls were powering open communication for troop movements between miJIs located as well on the holm as at the townside Prussia's central and westem provinces. Whereas the wharf, whereas locks installed 1732-33 allowed that character of the Weser as an «international» river boats could pass without lightening. formally would get confirmed by the Weser The Hamelin bridge therefore not only was to take Navigation Act of 1823, the communication crossing over one of Germany's soon main through roads that river at HameJin would become one of the running from east to west, but also to give eighteen most important routes mentioned by Prott in furthermore free access to the holm with its milis and his 1817 proposa!. locks. Designing a new structure of this bridge had to At this moment seven of the German states of quite consider that the number of waggons, carts, or a different size and political impact were carriages passing it presumabely would increase and neighbouring the river Weser: besides Hanover al so beyond that their load could increase, too. Whereas in Hesse-Cassel, Prussia, Brunswick, Lippe and 1822 the performance of a horse was estimated at 0.5 5chaumburg-Lippe, finally Bremen and Oldenburg. to 0.8 tons, in !830 it would have been 1.2 or even lA Then bridges were crossing the river only at six tons, so that a waggon pulled by four horses on a points, most of them located in Hanover. Apart from stone paved road, of which Hanover at this moment Hamelin and Nienburg there existed also bridges possessed totally a Jittle les s than 450 km, might have downstreams at Hoya and upstreams at Munden over been 10aded with up to six tons of goods (von Reden the river Werra, just before it is joining the river 1838,2: 345 and 380). Fulda and both shape the Weser. Each a single bridge At the beginning of the 19th century the Hamelin was crossing the river at Bremen, at Rinteln in the bridge was a timbered super structure on stone piers. A matter to be considered in various directions 1419 Its western part comprised five trusses and four river 50; NHStA Hann 109, 1028 and 13b/Hameln 6pg). piers, the eastern part connecting the city with the Apparently the renewed structure merely a couple mili and lock holm besides each two trusses and piers of years later again would need radical repair. By also a double t1ap bridge with the lifting gate on a their report of April 1824 Anton Heinrich and timbered pier in between both its decks. As in the Richard Dammert, both sons of the Lock course of the Napoleonic Wars each part of the bridge Commissioner and as engineering officers working had lost one of its piers and two of its trusses, both the with Prott and the General Board of Roads, therefore municipality and the General Board of Hydraulic argued for a cast iron bridge (NHStA 109, 1028 and Engineering soon after the armistice was urged to 13b/Hameln 8pg.). Their project was inspired by consider repair and beyond that improvements, too. Thomas Wilson's bridge of 1796 over the river Wear In a way following out the proposals made in January at Sunderland. This cast iron bridge basing on 1818 by Lock Commissioner Anton Heinrich Thomas Paine's design and consisting of six ribs, Dammert (ea. 1755~1828), the remains of the each made up of 105 iron blocks casted again at the destroyed piers as well as the flap bridge were foundry of the Walker brothers at Rotherham abandoned and longer, but still timbered trusses took (DeLony 2000, 43), was by its single-span of 72m at the place so that on each side a passage of about 33m that time not at least for German eyes a still could have been received (Hausmann and Plath 1973, spectacular feature.