It spans the Kloveniersburgwal in Amsterdam and connects the Nieuwe Doelenstraat with the Staalstraat. There has been a bridge here for centuries. Pieter Bast already drew a bridge here on his city map of 1599. This bridge can be seen in the same design on the map of Balthasar Florisz. van Berckenrode from 1625: A wooden bridge with a movable middle section. In front of the western entrance to the bridge were the Clovereniers Doelen, the namesake of the Nieuwe Doelenstraat and the later hotel. At that time there was still the Svych Toren Utrecht, that tower, called a dwinger, was also the namesake of the Dwingerbrug bridge at the time. To the east of the bridge were city carpentry gardens. The canal over which the bridge lay was then still called the Oude Cingel. The modern history of the bridge begins in September 1875. At that time, the municipality of Amsterdam spent money on replacing the wooden bascule part of the wooden bridge, which was also recorded by Pieter Oosterhuis. That bridge, built for 8,888 guilders, did not last long. In December 1896, a new tender followed. A bridge had to be built, an iron drawbridge and associated works to replace the existing double bascule bridge no. 222. Consultations had to be held with the engineer, head of the main office of Public Works where city architect Adriaan Willem Weissman worked at the time.[1] That bridge had three passages (two approach bridges) and a steel hamei gate. In 1936, shipping had to be partially stopped for a day; work had to be done on the bridge. A few months later, the road surface was replaced; no road traffic could cross the bridge. In 1955, work began to widen the bridge again; the existing bridge was so rusty that it posed a danger to relatively heavy traffic. By opting for an aluminum bridge, approximately 150,000 guilders could be saved. Work on the bridge began on 29 August 1955, when an aluminium bridge deck was installed for the first time in the Netherlands.[2] The bridge was widened from 7.40 to 8.60 metres, and it was estimated that the 13.5 tonne bridge deck was barely heavier than the original (13 tonnes) but five times sturdier. The bridge deck alone weighed 10 tonnes, and the final saving was 130,000 guilders. The bridge had apparently already been overtaken by the time it was completed; there were said to be six such bridges (aluminium spans) spread across the world, but it was named after the metal from which the bridge deck was made. The bridge, although a drawbridge, was taken out of service at the end of the 20th century/beginning of the 21st century. In the 21st century, the bridge is plagued by tourists who hang love locks on it. These relatively heavy locks pose a threat to the relatively light construction of the bridge.
Translated by Google •
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