Some 55 persons died when a cable-stayed bridge over the Saale River at Nienburg, Germany, collapsed on December 6, 1825. The disaster was cited as a reason that no major fixed cable-stayed bridges were constructed until 125 years later. The Nienburg Bridge was the first cable-stayed bridge with a roadway for team-drawn vehicles and sidewalks for pedestrians. Drawings, computations, and legal opinions of the court-of-inquiry were published by the designer/builder in 1827. A paper based on that information and local archives was presented at Bridge Management 3. Results of further study based on other technical information discovered later are presented herein.

  • Background

  • The Bridge Design

  • Bridge Construction

  • The Collapse

  • Official Collapse Investigation

  • Promemoria and Addendum

  • Preliminary Post-Collapse Structural Analysis

  • Acknowledgements

  • References

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