Slinky springs to fame, Pedestrian bridge in Oberhausen, Germany.

Slinky springs to fame is a 406-metre stressed-ribbon footbridge over the Rhein-Herne Canal in Oberhausen, designed by Tobias Rehberger with Schlaich Bergermann Partner. Two 46-cm-wide, 3-cm-thick high-strength steel bands carry 2.67-m-wide concrete slabs in 16 colour tones, supported by 10-m V-shaped steel columns. A non-structural aluminium hollow-profile coil about 5 m in diameter wraps the deck, forming the tunnel-like spiral seen from the banks.

Slinky springs to fame was commissioned by the Emschergenossenschaft as a contribution to EMSCHERKUNST.2010, part of RUHR.2010 European Capital of Culture. Construction began in December 2009 and the bridge opened on 25 June 2011. Tobias Rehberger designed it with the engineering office Schlaich Bergermann Partner, taking the Slinky helical-spring toy as his model. The design had to keep an 8 m clearance for shipping and leave the canal banks, secured by anchored sheet-pile walls, free of construction.

The bridge's English name is a pun on the Slinky toy: it can be read as "Slinky springs to fame" or "Slinky jumps/springs toward fame". Rehberger designed it as a walkable sculpture for EMSCHERKUNST.2010, part of RUHR.2010 European Capital of Culture. The ramps wind in irregular loops through the parks on both banks.

The bridge is reserved for pedestrians, as signs at both ends indicate, despite often being called a cycle bridge. The ramps climb at a constant 6 percent: the southern ramp through the Kaisergarten is 170 m long, the opposite one 130 m. At night 293 LEDs in the coil light the deck from below, while lights in the handrails illuminate it from above.

The name is a pun: it can read as "Slinky springs to fame" (the spring rises to fame) or "Slinky springs to fame" (Slinky jumps toward fame). The coil itself carries no load; the two 46 cm wide, 3 cm thick high-strength steel bands do, and the aluminium helix hangs on the concrete deck plates.