Architectural delicacies and landmarks of Bad Kreuznach are the bridge houses that were built from 1480 for lack of space.
The bridge houses are built in timber frame construction and stand on the Old Middle Bridge. It was built as a stone bridge in 1300. On eight pillars she bridged the two arms of the Nahe, which flow through the city: the Nahe and the Mühlenkanal. Only the bridge over the Mühlenkanal is preserved in its historic form as a pillar bridge. The Alte Nahebrücke was the intersection of two highways and then served as part of the city wall ring. Actually, you could not build this bridge. But because it was too narrow in the city in the wall ring, built citizens gradually from 1480 to 1600 on the pillars of these "black buildings". The powder chambers of the bridge fortification later served as basement of the bridge houses.
Particularly impressive is the sight of the bridge houses from the Geissen bridge on Mühlenteich, just a few steps from the Pauluskirche.
From this point of view, the characteristic construction can be seen. The projecting part of the house is supported by wooden struts, which means that the flood is hardly any attack surface. In the front of a bridge house is a cannonball attached, a memorial from the time of the siege and conquest of the city by Spaniards and Swedes in the 30-year war (1620 and 1632).