The Celie Bridge enables the connection between Maldegem and Celie - Sint-Laureins.
Celie is an old district on the Lieve in Adegem and Sint-Laureins, already mentioned in the 14th century.
Historical explanation:
The Schipdonk Canal or the Leie Diversion Canal was dug in the bed of the Lieve. The canal connected the Leie in Deinze with the North Sea in Zeebrugge. As a diversion canal, the canal was mainly intended to limit flooding, but the canal also played an important role as a new trade route between Deinze and Bruges. A first section, from the Leie in Deinze to the Brugse Vaart in Schipdonk in Merendree, was already dug in 1847-49. From Stoktevijver in Zomergem to Maldegem, part of the Leie Diversion Canal was dug in the bed of the Lieve in the period 1854-60. From Maldegem, the canal was dug further parallel to the Leopold Canal to Heist. When the canal was constructed, the old buildings around the Celie Bridge over the Lieve also disappeared. The current Celie Bridge over the Schipdonk Canal is an iron drawbridge, rebuilt after the destruction of the Second World War, according to a design by the Ministry of Public Works from 1947.
Source Inventory of Immovable Heritage