Brücke über die Zeile, Railway bridge in Rudolfsheim-Fünfhaus, Vienna, Austria
The Brücke über die Zeile is a railway viaduct in Vienna's 15th district that crosses over streets and the Wien River. The steel structure carries subway trains and spans the urban landscape to link different neighborhoods together.
The bridge was designed in 1894/1895 by Otto Wagner, artistic adviser to the k.k. Eisenbahnministerium, and built with two northern neighbours as part of the Gürtellinie of the Wiener Dampfstadtbahn, opened in 1898. From 1925 the Wiener Elektrische Stadtbahn used it. During the 1985–1989 conversion of the Gürtellinie into U6, a further bridge south of the river was demolished; this one survived.
The bridge's name refers to the Gumpendorfer Zeile it crosses, and it is also called the Otto-Wagner-Brücke after its designer. Its two granite pylons rise 13.7 metres above the bridge bearings, and the sloping track behind them is hidden behind a sheet-metal wall decorated with Mannstädte iron so that Otto Wagner's required horizontal lines stay visible.
The bridge crosses the Linke Wienzeile and the Wien River; the U4 platform of Längenfeldgasse lies south of the central pier, while the U6 runs on the viaduct. The steel structure is best seen from the streets below, where the 112-metre span and the 13.7-metre granite pylons are visible. The central pier is set at 39 degrees 7 minutes to the bridge axis.
The central pier stands at an angle of 39 degrees 7 arcminutes to the bridge axis and reaches 12.2 metres below road level, serving both the Wien River vaulting and the Lower Wien Valley Line as a shared abutment. The two end piers are clad in stone blocks and each carries two granite pylons rising 13.7 metres above the bridge bearings.
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