Rushamia Bridge, Concrete arch bridge in Halisa, Haifa, Israel.
Rushamia Bridge is a concrete road bridge over Nahal Giborim in the Halisa neighbourhood of Haifa, carrying the road from Hadar to Halisa and the bay. Built of cast concrete, it has five elliptical arches; the main span is about 30 metres and the side arches 10 to 12 metres. It is 90 metres long and 7.80 metres wide including the railing.
Construction began on 12 June 1927 and the bridge was inaugurated on 7 May 1928, during Hassan Shukri's term as mayor of Haifa. It was built in concrete with five elliptical arches, the main span about 30 metres, and was the largest bridge in Palestine at its opening. In April 1948 it was the scene of fighting between Jewish and Arab forces, and it was later renamed Heroes' Bridge in memory of the battle.
The bridge's Hebrew name, Gesher HaGiborim (Heroes' Bridge), commemorates the 1948 battle for the nearby Beit al-Najada, which overlooked the crossing. The road over it links the Hadar neighbourhood with Halisa and onward to Haifa Bay and the valleys.
The old bridge carries one-way traffic from Hadar toward Gesher Paz, while the newer Gdud 22 bridge, a few dozen metres north, handles traffic the other way. Pedestrians and drivers cross above Nahal Giborim, and since late 2013 the Derech Nahal Giborim road passes underneath both bridges.
The bridge's five elliptical concrete arches include a main span of about 30 metres, and when it opened in 1928 its arch rose 20 metres above the wadi floor. A temporary railway siding once ran beneath it, linking the quarries upstream to Haifa port.
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