The Nijmegen railway bridge is a Truss bridge

Truss bridge

A truss bridge is a bridge composed of connected elements which may be stressed from tension, compression, or sometimes both in response to dynamic loads. Truss bridges are one of the oldest types of modern bridges...

 spanning the River Waal, connecting the city of Nijmegen to the town of Lent

Lent, Netherlands

Lent is a village in the Dutch province of Gelderland. It is located in the municipality ofNijmegen, about 2 km north of that city, on the north bank of the Waal river.Lent was a separate municipality until 1818, when it was merged with Elst....

 in the Netherlands

Netherlands

The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

.

Construction

Construction started in 1875, on the site of an anicent Roman bridge, and was completed 4 years later in 1879. It originally consisted of 3 truss arches. The southern land abutment

Abutment

An abutment is, generally, the point where two structures or objects meet. This word comes from the verb abut, which means adjoin or having common boundary. An abutment is an engineering term that describes a structure located at the ends of a bridge, where the bridge slab adjoins the approaching...

, styled as a medieval city gate, was designed by Dutch architect P.J.H Cuypers

Pierre Cuypers

Petrus Josephus Hubertus Cuypers was a Dutch architect. His name is most frequently associated with the Amsterdam Central Station and the Rijksmuseum , both in Amsterdam. More representative for his oeuvre, however, are numerous churches, of which he designed more than 100...

. These tower structures served the purposes of protecting the entrance to the city of Nijmegen. The railway bridge's construction meant that train connections to Arnhem

Arnhem

Arnhem is a city and municipality, situated in the eastern part of the Netherlands. It is the capital of the province of Gelderland and located near the river Nederrijn as well as near the St. Jansbeek, which was the source of the city's development. Arnhem has 146,095 residents as one of the...

 were possible, thus Nijmegen was the last major city in the Netherlands

Netherlands

The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

 to be connected to the national rail network.

Second World War

The middle arch of the bridge was destroyed twice during the Second World War but despite this it survived the conflict. The abutment was also damaged by the Germans who mounted anti-aircraft guns

Anti-aircraft warfare

NATO defines air defence as "all measures designed to nullify or reduce the effectiveness of hostile air action." They include ground and air based weapon systems, associated sensor systems, command and control arrangements and passive measures. It may be to protect naval, ground and air forces...

 on each of the towers. The bridge was involved in Operation Market Garden

Operation Market Garden

Operation Market Garden was an unsuccessful Allied military operation, fought in the Netherlands and Germany in the Second World War. It was the largest airborne operation up to that time....

and was intended to be a key objective for the Allies to hold.

Reconstruction

The bridge was reconstructed in 1984, still in the truss style but only one arch was kept in the design. Only the brick abutment remains from the original structure. This land abutment was to be demolished during the reconstruction but protests from the local Nijmegen residents prevented this and it was instead declared a national monument. In 2003 a cycle bridge, known as the 'Snelbinder' was added to the east side of the bridge. The third level of the bridge was reconstructed in 2008, precisely from the original building plans.