Verbrande Brug, vertical-lift bridge in Grimbergen, Belgium

Verbrande Brug is a vertical-lift bridge over the Brussels-Scheldt Sea Canal in Grimbergen. Its movable steel section is 38.4 m long and 11.6 m wide, identical in dimensions to the Humbeek and Tisselt bridges built the same year. The structure forms a rectangular portal of pale grey steel: two hollow towers joined by crossbeams, with lifting cables running down their inner faces and a small glazed control cabin at the base of the right tower.

The name comes from a wooden bridge destroyed by Spanish troops in 1577. The current steel structure was built later to handle shipping traffic on the modern canal.

The name Verbrande Brug ("burned bridge") comes from a wooden bridge over the canal that the Spanish garrison of Vilvoorde set on fire in 1577. The hamlet on the Grimbergen bank took the same name. East of the bridge, a square is named after Corporal Léon Trésignies, and a monument to him stands on the west bank.

You can walk or cycle across the bridge, and from the height you get a good view of the canal. It is best to visit during daylight when you might see the lift mechanism in action if boats are passing through.

On 5 December 2004 the cables broke as the deck was being lowered and it fell 8 to 10 metres into the canal; the crash was heard up to 3 km away. No one was on the bridge, but a technician in the machine room above was slightly injured, and shipping was disrupted for over a week.