Aakerfährbrücke, Road bridge in Duisburg, Germany

The Aakerfährbrücke is a road bridge that crosses the Ruhr River, connecting the districts of Duissern and Meiderich. It has four traffic lanes plus separate pathways for pedestrians and cyclists on each side.

A ford crossed the Ruhr here in early settlement times, later replaced by a ferry first mentioned in 1359, the Aakerfähre, about 150 metres downstream. The first fixed bridge was built between 1902 and 1904, planned by the Harkort bridge company of Duisburg and decorated by Berlin architect Bruno Möhring. It was badly damaged in autumn 1944 and reopened almost unchanged in 1946; structural damage in the early 1990s led to a complete rebuild.

The name refers to a historic ferry service that once connected the two river banks at this location. Walking across today, visitors can still see the old tram tracks embedded in the roadway, serving as a reminder of how people once moved through the city.

The bridge is crossed by four lanes of road traffic; the wide pedestrian and cycle paths on both sides are separated from the carriageway. The tram tracks still lie in the middle lanes, a reminder that trams shared the road with cars until the Duissern–Meiderich line closed in 2000.

Despite streetcar service ending decades ago, the original tram tracks remain embedded in the road surface and create an interesting visual detail. They serve as a tangible reminder of when the city relied on this network to move people around.