Crown Prince Bridge, Steel road bridge in Berlin-Mitte, Germany

Crown Prince Bridge is a steel road bridge over the Spree in Berlin, linking Mitte and Tiergarten with the parliamentary quarter. It carries Konrad-Adenauer-Straße with two vehicle lanes and cycleways and footpaths on both sides. Its deck rests on two parallel steel tubes, each 1016 mm in diameter, braced by inclined struts to tubular arches above the water.

A wooden bascule bridge, the Unterbaum Bridge, was built here in 1709 below the Schönhauser Graben. In 1877–1879 a new bridge named after Crown Prince Frederick William was erected on the western Kronprinzenufer, a cast-iron arch structure with three spans. Badly damaged in 1945, it was closed when the Berlin Wall went up in 1961 and its superstructure demolished in 1972, leaving the piers standing.

The bridge sits just beside the Reichstag and the Federal Chancellery, so crossing it puts you right next to the heart of Germany's government. Walkers and cyclists use it every day as a simple link between the neighborhoods on either side.

The bridge is easy to cross on foot or by bicycle thanks to the wide paths on both sides. Cyclists passing through the government quarter will find it fits naturally into any route along the Spree riverbank.

The 1991 competition was won by Santiago Calatrava, but his design proved buildable only with static modifications, delaying construction by two years. The steel superstructure, about 800 tonnes, was shipped from Belgium in 16 parts and welded together on site before being floated up the Spree into position.