Mainbrücke Miltenberg (Main Bridge Miltenberg)
Sandstone arch bridge over the Main, built in 1900, blown up in 1945, and rebuilt in reinforced concrete with its historic gate tower preserved.
At river kilometer 124.8, the Mainbrücke Miltenberg carries road traffic across the Main, linking the old town with the district of Miltenberg Nord.
At a Glance
- Type
- Road arch bridge over the Main
- Location
- River kilometer 124.8, between the old town and Miltenberg Nord
- Spans
- six arch openings
- Built
- 1900, rebuilt by 1950
- Special feature
- gate tower on the left bank of the Main
- Heritage status
- listed on the Bavarian Monument Register since 1981
History
As early as the Middle Ages, a ferry crossed the Main at Miltenberg. A bridge-building association founded in 1876, together with a fund set up in 1885, raised 429,342 marks in donations by 1898. On 28 February 1898 the town commissioned the construction firm Grün & Bilfinger to build the bridge for 405,000 marks. It was inaugurated on 5 June 1900 by the Bishop of Würzburg, Ferdinand von Schlör, and connected Miltenberg to the newly acquired municipal areas to the north.
The First Bridge
The 1900 structure was 7 m wide and featured six openings, built from local red sandstone with a gate tower on the left bank. The piers were made of rubble masonry founded on solid sandstone rock.
Destruction and Reconstruction
German troops blew up the bridge on 28 March 1945, leaving only the piers and gate tower standing; because the detonation at 5:30 p.m. came without warning, there were fatalities. From July 1945 a ferry service resumed while the first reconstruction plans got underway, followed that autumn by demolition and clearing work. In February 1946, a consortium of Philipp Holzmann and Grün & Bilfinger was awarded a contract worth 1.15 million Reichsmarks to build a new arch bridge using the old piers and abutments. Work began in spring 1947 after approval from the Bavarian State Ministry of the Interior, and the bridge opened on 22 April 1950, with total costs of 700,000 RM and 1.68 million DM borne by the town and the Free State of Bavaria.
Construction
Each of the six openings is spanned by a 9.20 m wide reinforced-concrete three-hinged arch, clad on the sides with red sandstone. Arch thickness varies from 30 cm at the springing to 50–60 cm at the quarter points and 40 cm at the crown. Span widths range from 32.7 m at the end openings to 37.3 m at the two central arches, with rise heights between 4.43 m and 6.73 m; the piers are about 3.5 m thick and 13.85 m wide at the top. The roadway is 7.0 m wide with 1.5 m footpaths on either side, and the 22 cm reinforced-concrete deck slab cantilevers 55 cm on each side. The central openings offer shipping traffic 20 m of width and 6.40 m of clearance at the highest navigable water level, while the narrow 7.4 m passage at the gate tower means the footpaths are carried around it on brackets. Because the old abutment levels were retained, the roadway rises 2.82% on the left side and 1.15% on the right. Construction proceeded in two stages on timber falsework, with the northern section completed by late 1948 and the southern section a year later, employing up to 110 workers.
Gallery
Map
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Address
Mainbrücke
63897 Miltenberg
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Sources & links
- Wikidata (retrieved 2026-07-13)
- Wikipedia (retrieved 2026-07-13, rev 237812443)
- Official website (retrieved 2026-07-13)
Auto-generated, last verified: 2026-07-13
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