Glienicke Bridge I The Steel Bridge of Spies I Divided East and West Germany On The Bridge

#DevidedGermany #EastWestGermany #Germany #Gliencke #BridgeOfSpies The first bridge built across the Havel River was wooden, it was constructed in 1660, but by the early 1800s, a new bridge was needed to accommodate the massive increase in traffic between Berlin and Potsdam. The architect Karl Friedrich Schinkel designed a brick and wood bascule bridge, which was finished in 1834. In the year 1900, tens of thousands of vehicles crossed the cumbersome movable wooden bridge. The narrow structure was not capable of handling such an increase and it caused heavy traffic. Something more durable was needed and so in 1904, the Prussian government held a design competition to replace the wooden bridge. The Prussian government looked to steel for a strong, reliable material. The Johann Caspar Harkort Company of Duisburg submitted the winning design, a modern, iron bridge with the outer appearance of a suspension bridge. The new steel bridge was officially opened in November 1907. This bridge