Karl-Theodor-Brucke  or The Alte Brucke
Over the Neckar River,    Heidelberg,    Germany
Kilroy was here !

    The four prior bridges at this location were of wooden construction and were destroyed  by floods, fire and ice.   Prince Elector Karl Theodor was the first ruler to have constructed a stone bridge at this site and it was erected from 1786 to 1788.   The Baroque tower helmets were also added during the 1788 construction.  The West Tower contains dungeons, whereas the East Tower holds a spiral staircase.   Two bays of the bridge carry statues created by Franz Konrad Linck, who was the official court sculpturist. This is a very historical and scenic site which is overlooked from the south by the venerable Heidelberg (Schloss) Castle high on the hill side.  From the hills on the right bank the scene can be over viewed  from an equally famous landmark the Philosophers Walk (Philosophenweg).


A Bridge To The Past

   Over the years I have been associated with a large number of bridges designing, drawing, planning, constructing and tearing them down.   This Old Bridge crossing the Neckar river stands out in my memory among them all  and my only real contact has been in observing it.  When least expected, this one has from time to time popped up on my radar screen.
    I don't know how it is done but Heidelberg during the course of WW II had been declared an open city. As as a result the city had not been bombed and there had been no heavy fighting in it, consequently they had suffered no major damage.  One exception was the Karl-Theodor-Bridge, as the center section of each arch had been blown out.  This appeared to have been light charges, as no major damage was apparent, which lifted the keystones and allowed the spans to drop into the river.  As there would have been no reason for the advancing forces to do this I have always assumed it to have been blown by the German Army in their retreat.  (On the water side of the upstream tower at eye level there is a small metal plate.  It carries the date 1945 but the inscription is in german and I can only assume it refers to this incident.  I should have taken the time to find someone to translate it for me.)
    I probably would have never given this bridge more than glance in passing except for one of those little accidental things that happen.   This occurred when my bridge train of the 488th Engineers had commandeered a wire factory on outer Berg Strasse in the suburb of Neuenheim and we were using it as a Hq. and had worked on several bridge sites from there.
    On this occasion we were heading out in a convoy to a bridge site somewhere, our destination was normally unknown to us in the rear ranks  (maybe the front ranks too) and SOP was to follow the leader.   We motored south on Rt. 3 crossing the Neckar on the Theodor-Heuss-Brucke (reading these routes and names from my Michelin here as my memory isn't quite this good) we turned left onto Neckarstaden and traveled east up along the River.   Less than a mile upstream we came to my subject bridge.  Here Army Engineers had constructed a Ponton bridge crossing the river just below the Karl-Theodor-Bridge.      It was here too that our Lt. and his jeep driver continued straight through and for whatever  reason the M.P. directing traffic waved the first truck in the convoy back across the Neckar on this floating bridge naturally thereafter each truck followed the leader.   In crossing over I got a good look at the old bridge as we were very close along side and noted it was constructed of stone blocks cut from Potsdam sandstone and was very ornate with statues spaced along the parapets.
    Getting back to the war, coming off the bridge we continued up Schlangenweg which is a very winding street which leads eventually to the Philosophensweg.   Tagging along it became apparent that our convoy was sputtering a bit and we soon learned why as the Lt. came tearing past in what seemed to be, to put it mildly, a state of agitation and things came to a screeching halt.  Here all were gathered round and a pretty stern lecture was delivered on the virtues of following our leader and how any orders given by an M.P. didn't amount to diddley squat etc. (the next time I tried to explain to an M.P. that I was only following orders, it didn't work.)     We then regrouped and crossed back over the river and on to wherever.  This gave me a second look at the old bridge, which at that time stuck in my mind no more than dozens of other wrecked bridges which we had viewed. 

  In 1946 stationed at the old Vahigen Kasserne (Patch Barracks) near Stuttgart with the 346th Engineer G. S. Regt. I was a courier and one of my chores every other day was transporting official mail to and from Third Army Hq. at Heidelberg.  This meant having mid-day lunch on those days in a U. S. transient mess which was located on Karlsplatz, the route there took me past the Alt Brucke.   As the Germans were in the process of rebuilding  it, I had plenty of opportunity to watch the progress of this restructuring.    Also as what was to prove fortuitous later, I took a few pictures. The German brochures mainly overlook this little facet of history.   It was particularly interesting to me as I had no idea at the time as to how a stone arch bridge was constructed.   I learned that a false work of wood was erected and the stones were laid in place on it.  When finally the keystones were in place the false work was removed and Walla.   Also instead of being solidly made of stone the side walls were laid up on the arches and gravel/earth fill is used to carry the roadway. 

  In the early 1970's I was working for an Engineering firm in Watertown, NY, that employed several German engineers and in casual conversation with one and talking about Germany,  mentioned the Alte Brucke being blown down or up if you will and couldn't resist adding that they, the Germans had done it and not us.   This occasion quite an outburst and Gunther proclaimed that he had attended the University in Heidelburg in 1948 and that old bridge was as sound as ever it had been and intimated I was having pipe dreams.   This is where my pictures saved the day for me (I think) as I brought them into work and showed them to Gunther.   He studied them very closely and assiduously and without really commenting to me walked away talking in german.  As I didn't have my Michelin I don't know what his reaction really was.
 
 
 
 

At some point in time I was reading The Selected Letters of Mark Twain and my eye caught a photo of the Alte Brucke......   In one letter, To Howells, Boston ..   From Schloss Hotel, Heidelberg,.................     Sunday,  a.m.,  May 26, 1878, ......... Twain wrote:
My dear Howells,
    "From this airy porch among the shining groves we look down upon Heidelberg Castle and upon the swift Neckar and the town and out over the wide green level of the Rhine valley - a marvelous prospect.   We are in a cul-de-sac formed of hill ranges and river.   We are on the side of a steep mountain.  The river at our feet is walled, on its other side (yes on both sides) by a steep and wooded mountain range which rises abruptly aloft from the waters edge.  Portions of these mountains are densely wooded. The plain of the Rhine, seen through the mouth of this pocket, has many and peculiar charms for the eye..........
    And then Heidelberg on a dark night!   It is massed, away down there, almost right under us, you known, and stretches off toward the valley.   It's curved and interlacing streets are a cobweb beaded thick with lights, a wonderful thing to see.  Then the rows of lights on the arched bridges and their glinting reflections in the water.  And away at the far end, Eisenbahnhof, with its twenty solid acres of glittering gas jets, a huge garden, as one may say, whose every plant is a flame......."


  For you folks that are to young to remember Robert L. Ripley he was the father of Believe It or Not!   In his day no other man gripped the imagination and interest of people throughout the world to such an extent.  Born of poor parents in Santa Rosa, California on Christmas day 1893, Ripley began his career at the age of 14, selling his first drawing to LIFE for $ 8.00.  On December 19, 1918, while working as a sports cartoonist at the New York Globe, and at a loss for an idea, Ripley desperately gathered together a few oddities that happened to be on his desk, made them into a cartoon and captioned them "BELIEVE IT OR NOT!"   This feature later caught on an appeared in newspapers throughout the world, in 38 countries and was translated into 17 languages.
    On October 25, 1974  I was reading the evening paper and there she was again!  It had taken 30 years but the Alte Brucke had finally made it into Believe It Or Not!  for the simple fact that it had been rebuilt with the original stones.
 


    Sometime in the mid-80's I was working here in Canton and rounded the corner of the main intersection in the village and there she was again the Alte Brucke in the form of an 18 x 24 poster was hanging in the window of the old Sugar Bowl restaurant, which had been converted into a Travel Bureau.  As luck would have it this business was owned by the daughter-in-law of the lady who was officer manager where I was working. (Confused)   Ergo I put the Bee on her and today due to her good offices, that self same poster is framed and ensconced on my summer porch.

    One bit of trivia to add here is that while on a trip to Germany, I made sure to add a side trip to Heidelberg and once more to visit the Alte Brucke getting a few more pictures and a walk across the bridge.  Showing that nothing is sancrostant we then had lunch at the Golden Arches which was in one of the old structures on the Marktplatz, contrasting with the square which was lined with the market gardeners stalls and festooned with flowers of all sorts.

    As of this writing I am waiting for the other shoe to drop and expect to come across the Alte Brucke in some form and when least expected.  When that occurs I will add that event to this listing.