River built OVER a River in Germany - AMAZING

I had never heard of this. Engineering is amazing!

This is another modern miracle. Even the riddle is fascinating.

ABSOLUTELY INCREDIBLE


If you are not a Physics person, read the last paragraph and learn a fact of physics.
Have you ever seen a river over a river? AMAZING !!!

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Even after you see it, it is still hard to believe!
Water Bridge in Germany . What a feat!
Six years, 500 million Euros, 918 meters long . . . now this is engineering!

This is a channel-bridge over the River Elbe and joins the former East and West Germany ,
As part of the unification project. It is located in the city of Magdeburg,near Berlin .
The photo was taken on the day of inauguration.

To those who appreciate engineering projects, here's a puzzle for your armchair engineers
. . . and physicists.

Question:

Did that bridge have to be designed to withstand the additional weight of ship and barge traffic,
Or just the weight of the water?

Answer:

the answer will appear at the end of this email, I moved it to give you time to
think about it.


Saturday, April 23, 2011
The Incredible Magdeburg Water Bridge in Germany
The Magdeburg Water Bridge is a navigable aqueduct in Germany that connects the Elbe-Havel Canal to the Mittelland Canal,and allows ships to cross over the Elbe River . At 918 meters, it is the longest navigable aqueduct in the world.
The Elbe- Havel and Mittelland canals had previously met near Magdeburg but on opposite sides of the Elbe . Ships moving between the two had to make a 12-kilometer detour, descending from the Mittelland Canal through the Rothensee boat lift into the Elbe, then sailing downstream on the river, before entering the Elbe-Havel Canal through Niegripp lock. Low water levels in the Elbe often prevented fully laden canal barges from making this crossing, requiring time-consuming off-loading of cargo.

Construction of the water link was started as early as in the 1930's but due to the World War 2 and subsequent division of Germany the work remained suspended till 1997. The aqueduct was finally completed and opened to the public in 2003.

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ANSWER:
It only needs to be designed to withstand the weight of the water!

Why?
A ship always displaces an amount of water that weighs the same as the ship, regardless of how heavily a ship may be loaded.

I don't know about you but this one seems a bit redundant to me....

....

This is a subject for a Made for Tv Movie...

"A river runs over it"

reply to post by CeeRZ


Absolutely amazing. Just goes to show you anything we set our minds to we can accomplish.

Just need more innovative ideas like these.

Epic!
Leave it to the germans to engineer something like that.

cool bridge but to be honest i dont think it is that amazing, we have had things like this in the uk for over 100 years. we have canals that run over highways, railways and rivers..

Beutiful, perhaps I will visit it soon.. not a long drive here from denmark
Epic construction

It is very neat, amazing, well I have
SEEN SOME pretty crazy stuff
so amazing I can not say..

It is basically a bridge flooded with water
over a river....

I sure hope it NEVER FLOODS in Germany
because those houses in the bowl right next to it
are done for

thats amazing, engineering is getting more and more complicated each day, and more advanced

This is some very cool engineering.

S&F


To answer your question.....No, the barges will displace their equivalent weight in water. As such the water is the only weight that the engineers had to worry about.


To add...I should have finished reading the post before answering....lol.....live and learn

Thats amazing,when i read the title of the thread i wasn't expecting that,fantastic enginering,this is what i want to read about in the news,alway makes me smile seeing things like this.

reply to post by CeeRZ


Not too amazed that this have been achieved, but it is still bloody awsome! Im sure it hasn't been done yet due to the cost being greater than the money that it will generate, It is still inspiring to look at though, I hope it stays maintained and remains active.

This is quite a neat piece of engineering too. The Falkirk Wheel boat lift



Here's a trip accross the Pontycysyllte aquduct in Wales. Built by Telford and finished in 1805. I know the sealant used was either wool or lint soaked in bulls blood, well over a 1,000 were slaughtered if I remember rightly and the seals still hold.

reply to post by CeeRZ


My gods... that's amazing! Once again, leave it to the brilliance of German engineering to create such a marvel!

reply to post by goldentorch


Wow! Those are awesome too! And really? Bulls blood? I'm glad engineering has changed a bit No more skulls in walls, or blood soaked wool for sealant.

That does look pretty cool especially the fact it's a river over a river, but you all sound like you've never heard of an aquaduct, the technology has been around for a long time. Going by memory i nthink even the romans had them.

Originally posted by CeeRZ
reply to post by goldentorch

 

Wow! Those are awesome too! And really? Bulls blood? I'm glad engineering has changed a bit

No more skulls in walls, or blood soaked wool for sealant.

What staggered me was not only the method of sealing the lining but the fact they remain intact and unchanged since 1805, alchemy at it's best

Originally posted by Disjecta Membra
That does look pretty cool especially the fact it's a river over a river, but you all sound like you've never heard of an aquaduct, the technology has been around for a long time. Going by memory i nthink even the romans had them.

Nope, I've heard of aquaducts. I was simply impressed with this because the Germans have taken the idea of an aquaduct as its base, and expanded the concept to the degree where they are able to serve as canals! That's what impressed the hell out of me!

(oh, and as an aside, yes the Romans had aquaducts. They designed them)

^Thx for clarifying the roman thing i rarely trust my memory as of late. but Aquaducts were canals, that could traverse gorges and such (see my link) soz i didn't know how embed the image. I mean i'm not taking away from the germans doing this but I'm not "amazed" like other posters seemed to be about the engineering feat.

reply to post by Disjecta Membra


I guess for some of us, it's the size and ... not necessarily uniqueness (as it's apparently been done) - but it's pretty new territory for some of us here in the states at least. We don't really have stuff like that. Yes, we have some cool stuff... but come on, we had to build Disneyland just to say we have a castle.

For the USA, there is an aqueduct in Metamora, Indiana, 80 miles southeast of Indianapolis. It is part of the Erie canal, a man-made canal that handled barge traffic to the Ohio river. Very nice historic town to visit.

The Aqueduct Covered Bridge, also known as the Duck Creek Aqueduct, is the only known covered wooden aqueduct still operating in the United States and was once featured in Ripley's "Believe it or Not." Located in Section 36, Township 12 North, and Range 12 East, Franklin County, the Aqueduct conveys the Whitewater Canal over Duck Creek, which is 16 feet below. Located in the Metamora Historic District, this single span Burr Arch Truss structure is 60 feet long and was built in 1847; the first Aqueduct on this site was built in 1843 and destroyed by floodwater in 1847. The Aqueduct Covered Bridge is included within two National Historic Registers listings: added in 1973 as part of the Whitewater Canal Historic District and in 1992 Metamora part of the Metamora Historic District. The bridge, which was restored between 1946 and 1949, was listed as #14-24-11 in the 1972 World Guide.

In 2005 CLR, Inc., undertook the task of renovating this treasured Indiana landmark. More images at www.galenfrysinger.com...