Rheinbrücke Rheinau–Altenburg, Wooden road bridge in Zürich, Switzerland

The Rheinbrücke Rheinau–Altenburg is a covered wooden road bridge over the Rhine between Rheinau in the canton of Zurich and Altenburg in Jestetten, Germany. Its 63-metre covered timber span, 4.3 metres wide and 3.05 metres high, rests on three fields of about 21 metres each and is flanked by stone arch bridges, giving a total length of about 80 metres. The two central piers are pile bents, each made of a row of eight piles.

The first bridge at this location was built in 1324 to help Rheinau Monastery reach its lands on the opposite bank. This original crossing served for centuries as the main link between territories separated by the river.

The sandstone statue of Saint John Nepomuk, the bridge saint, was erected at the Swiss approach in 1732 by sculptor Johann Josef Auer. On 23 October 1872, late-returning church consecration visitors threw it into the Rhine. In 1955, during power plant construction, the torso was found in the riverbed. A bronze by Emilio Stanzani now stands on the pillar pulpit.

The bridge can support a maximum weight of 8 tons and uses a three-field truss system to distribute loads safely. Heavy vehicles cannot use this route, so plan your crossing accordingly if you are traveling by car.

The two middle piers are pile bents, each made of a row of eight piles. Since the 1988 renovation for 2 million francs, these rest on steel-reinforced concrete foundation beams 1.5 to 2 metres high, clad in wood. The riverbed under the Swiss pier is 2 to 2.5 metres deep, but 3.5 to 4 metres on the German side.