Ludendorff Bridge

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Ludendorff Bridge Ludendorff-Brücke
The bridge seen from the bank of the Rhine before its March 1945 collapse
Coordinates	50°34′45″N 7°14′39″E / 50.5792°N 7.2442°E / 50.5792; 7.2442
Carried	Railway
Crossed	Rhine
Locale	Rhineland-Palatinate
Official name	Ludendorff Bridge
Other name(s)	Bridge at Remagen
Named for	Erich Ludendorff
Characteristics
Design	Through arch bridge
Material	Iron
Total length	325 m (1,066 ft)
Piers in water	Two
History
Designer	Karl Wiener
Constructed by	Grün & Bilfinger
Construction start	1916
Construction end	1919
Construction cost	2.1 million marks
Collapsed	17 March 1945
Location

Ludendorff-Brücke

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Location in Germany

The Ludendorff Bridge (sometimes referred to as the Bridge at Remagen) was a bridge across the river Rhine in Germany which was captured by United States Army forces in early March 1945 during the Battle of Remagen, in the closing weeks of World War II, when it was one of the few remaining bridges in the region and therefore a critical strategic point. Built during World War I to help deliver reinforcements and supplies to German troops on the Western Front, it connected Remagen on the west bank and the village of Erpel on the east bank between two hills flanking the river.

Midway through Operation Lumberjack, on 7 March 1945, the troops of the 1st U.S. Army approached Remagen and were surprised to find that the bridge was still standing.^[1] Its capture, two weeks before Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery's planned Operation Plunder, enabled the U.S. Army to establish a bridgehead on the eastern side of the Rhine. After the U.S. forces captured the bridge, German forces tried to destroy it many times.

It finally collapsed on 17 March 1945, 10 days after it was captured; 28 Army engineers were killed in the collapse while a further 63 were injured. Of those who died, 18 were actually missing, but presumably had drowned in the swift current of the Rhine.^[2] The bridge, while it stood, and newly established pontoon bridges, enabled the U.S. Army to secure a bridgehead of six divisions, about 125,000 troops, with accompanying tanks, artillery pieces, and trucks, across the Rhine. Capturing the bridge hastened the war's conclusion,^[3] and V-E Day came on May 8. After the war, the bridge was not rebuilt; the towers on the west bank were converted into a museum and the towers on the east bank are now a performing-arts space.

A 2020 poll of local people found that 91% favoured rebuilding the bridge; without it there is no river crossing for 44 km (27 mi), and few ferries. In 2022 plans were initiated to build a suspension bridge for pedestrians and cyclists. Local communities indicated an interest to help fund the project and an engineer was commissioned to draw up plans.^[4]