Osten Transporter Bridge, Transporter bridge in Cuxhaven, Germany.
The Osten Transporter Bridge is a green-painted steel truss spanning the Oste between Osten and Hemmoor, with two lattice towers joined by an overhead girder from which a rectangular gondola hangs by cables. The structure is 90 m long with a total height of 38 m, and the gondola measures 16 m by 4.30 m. It carries road traffic across the river without any pier standing in the water.
In 1899 Osten's council chose a transporter ferry over a costly swing bridge. From 1903 MAN's Gustavsburg works and AEG drew up the plans, and building began in late 1908 under Berlin engineer Max Pinette. The ferry opened on 1 October 1909 at a cost of 180,000 marks. It ran until 1974, when the new B495 bridge opened and it closed the next day.
The bridge is a stop on the Deutsche Fährstraße, a tourist route linking ferries and crossings between Kiel and Bremervörde. Since 1975 the Fördergesellschaft zur Erhaltung der Schwebefähre Osten, a society founded that year, has run the gondola for visitors. An information mile along the ferry road in Hemmoor uses display panels to explain this and other transporter bridges worldwide.
The gondola holds two coupled wagons and 25 people, or six cars and about 100 people in later tourist service. It runs on a 9.20 m track gauge with a 13 kW electric motor and 18 t load capacity. The crossing is short; the platform hangs 21 m above the highest water level, so river traffic passes beneath.
Only about 8 transporter bridges of this type remain worldwide, making this construction a rare example of early engineering innovation. In 2009 it received recognition as a Historic Landmark of Civil Engineering, adding formal protection to its heritage status.
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