On the collapse of the Nienburg cable-stayed road bridge

Abstract

Some 55 persons died on 6 December 1825 when a cable-stayed road bridge spanning the Saale River at Nienburg, Germany, collapsed during a public celebration. It was the first bridge with a fan arrangement of stays and the first with a carriageway for heavy team-drawn wagons and with two sidewalks for pedestrians. The timber deck was 7.5 m wide and it spanned about 80 m between centerlines of two towers. It had a double-leaf bascule at midspan for the purpose of enabling sailing vessels with tall masts to pass the bridge without unshipping the masts. G. Bandhauer was the designer. There were questionable design details and serious quality control problems during construction, especially with the wrought iron stays, but the bridge was load-tested twice and thereafter opened to traffic in September, 1825. It collapsed three months later during a celebration thanking Duke Ferdinand for the bridge during which youths tried to excite the bridge in time to the melody of “God Save the King.”