Klinkerhafenbrücke, Railway bridge in Oranienburg, Germany
The Klinkerhafenbrücke is a railway bridge that spans the Oder-Havel Canal in Oranienburg. It carries trains on the Berlin-Karow-Fichtengrund line, linking rail sections across Brandenburg's transportation network.
The first railway bridge over the Oder-Havel Canal here was built from about 1940 to 1942 for a siding to the Klinkerwerk Oranienburg brick factory, a satellite camp of Sachsenhausen where thousands of prisoners did forced labour. Soviet troops dismantled the factory and siding after the war; the canal was crossed by a 60-metre Roth-Waagner temporary bridge, and the present ESB 66 steel truss was floated in on 23 July 1986. The line was closed in 1999 and the bridge listed in 2010.
The name comes from the Klinkerhafen, the harbour of the Klinkerwerk Oranienburg brickworks, a satellite camp of Sachsenhausen where thousands of prisoners were forced to work. The bridge type ESB 66 was developed in the GDR from 1976 under strict secrecy; this is the only completed project of its kind.
The bridge stands at canal kilometre 29.665, about one kilometre southeast of Friedrichsthal and three kilometres from Oranienburg; the line is single-track and runs east-west. The footpath on the south side is closed, and the railway has been out of service since 1999, so the structure is best viewed from the surrounding paths rather than crossed.
The bridge is a mobile ESB 66 unit, a railway and road bridge with a maximum span of 66 metres, developed in the GDR from 1976 under strict secrecy. The 207-tonne structure was first assembled at full length in Walddrehna in 1983, then stored. The Klinkerhafenbrücke is the only completed project of its kind.
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