Kettwig railway bridge
In October 1886, the "Bergisch-Märkischen-Eisenbahn" (BME), one of the three large private railways that once opened up the Ruhr area, was granted the concession to build the "Ruhr Valley Railway". It was supposed to open up the Ruhr valley from Düsseldorf - with a route via Ratingen, Kettwig, Werden, Kupferdreh, Herdecke, Schwerte, Arnsberg and finally to Kassel. In 1872 the route to Kupferdreh was completed.
In 1877 the route from Essen main station to Werden was added to the network. This resulted in a continuous connection between Essen and Düsseldorf. Today the connection is used exclusively for S-Bahn traffic.
The so-called "Lower Ruhr Valley Railway" between Mülheim-Styrum and Kettwig, which was opened in 1876 by the Bergisch-Märkische Eisenbahn, has fallen into oblivion. It branched off the main line of the Bergisch-Märkische railway in Styrum and reached Kettwig station via Broich, Saarn and Mintard. At the entrance to Kettwig, travelers got off at the "Kettwig Stausee" station until 1968 in order to reach today's S-Bahn station via a few stairs to change to the Ruhr Valley Railway. Before the Second World War, you could still get to Kettwig directly without having to change trains, because the Lower Ruhr Valley Railway had its own (lower-lying) bridge that no longer existed, but whose abutments are still clearly visible.