Hardbrücke, Road bridge in Industriequartier, Zürich, Switzerland.
Hardbrücke is a 1,350-metre girder bridge on Zürich's Westtangente, running from Wipkingen over the Limmat, past the S-Bahn station Hardbrücke and across the main station's track field to Hardplatz. Over the Limmat it forms an upper deck above the Wipkingerbrücke, with the tram line 13 running directly beneath it.
Built between 1969 and 1972, this concrete bridge replaced an earlier steel truss structure from 1897. The new construction was needed because traffic demands in the city had grown significantly.
The name comes from the German toponym Hard, meaning hill or forest, also found in Hardplatz, Hardturm, Hardau and the Hard quarter. Since 1982 a railway station named Zürich Hardbrücke has stood beneath the bridge, served by S-Bahn regional trains and ranked 11th in Switzerland by passenger numbers in 2018. Above it, a stop called Bahnhof Hardbrücke is used by tram route 8, trolleybus routes 33 and 72 and bus route 83.
Pedestrians and cyclists share the sidewalks on both sides of the bridge, separated from car traffic by a concrete wall. The S-Bahn station below the bridge is reached from the bridge itself or through an underpass, in both cases by stairs and elevators. Above the station, the Bahnhof Hardbrücke stop is served by tram 8, trolleybus 33 and 72, and bus 83.
The Hardbrücke crosses the Limmat as an upper deck directly above the Wipkingerbrücke, which carries Wipkingerstrasse and tram line 13 below. The two-level section was originally counted as part of the Wipkingerbrücke itself. The bridge takes its name from the old Flurname Hard, meaning hill or forest, which also appears in Hardplatz, Hardturm and Hardau.
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