Wommen Viaduct, Arch bridge in Herleshausen, Germany.
The Wommen Viaduct is a 303.8-metre-long motorway bridge on the A4, standing 26.5 metres high with 17 arches. Its southern half, built 1938–1940, has a red sandstone facing; the northern half, added 1992–1993, uses steel-reinforced concrete arches with coloured concrete instead of stone on the arch undersides. The bridge crosses the Nesse stream and the L3251 road.
Construction began in 1938 as part of the Reichsautobahn highway project but was halted by World War 2, leaving the structure incomplete for decades. In the 1990s, after German reunification, the viaduct was fully restored and adapted to meet modern traffic standards.
The viaduct is named after Wommen, the village of Herleshausen municipality it stands north of, not after a stream; the water below is the Nesse, crossed together with state road L3251. The A 44 ends at the Wommen motorway junction just west of the bridge. Both halves keep a red sandstone facing, though the newer arches are coloured concrete underneath.
The viaduct is visible from Bundesautobahn 4 and sits in hilly terrain between Herleshausen and the surrounding valleys. Visitors can view the structure from below in the valley or photograph it from nearby local roads.
The northern half was shifted 2.3 metres north of the original bridge axis, and its arches are 80 cm thick reinforced concrete rather than the sandstone-clad masonry of the south. To save money, the undersides of the new arches were left as coloured concrete instead of natural stone.
The community of curious travelers
AroundUs brings together thousands of curated places, local tips, and hidden gems, enriched daily by 94,005 contributors worldwide.