A Rusty Railway Bridge 07/08/2019
This blog is about a Bridge over the River Odra just west of Wroclaw, Poland. It is a rather long bridge built in two parts but on shared pillars. One track is disused and would seen not have been used from some 30 or more years. The bridge it self is rusty and perhaps last painted before the second world war. Under the bridge are two German Military Bunkers facing out over the river whilst at each end are two single pot bunkers 2still in position and two having slipped down the embankment.
The above image is looking a the main track, which is still in use carry heavy goods trains and passenger trains across the bridge
Although there are two walkways which were originally wood planked one has lost all the wooden planks and the other which you can walk over is now covered in steel plates - none the less it still makes for a scary walk as I found out.
Above is the the only walk way from one side of the bridge to the other. The steel plates are lightly bolted and some do move there are many gaps to be careful of - note the chap on the bike
This is a shot of the west side bunker the east side is to its right out of view. Made of solid concrete and a massive steel plate through where the weapon would be fired out of. The bridge looks very rusty but I remains very solid - A good coat of paint would again make the bridge very impressive.
The east side Bunker can now be viewed and on this one you can just see the steel plate that I though was about 3 inches thick. The inside was small and not much room to move when you allow for weaponry etc. There was not much left and only a few German written signs.
Inside the west bunker was this German writing dating back some 70 years - it seemed rather strange to touch and think what went on here at that time.
At each end of the bridge and on either side of the twin tracked line stood these concrete guard turrets - today only two remain almost in place with two haven fallen down the embankment over time. These turrets were heavy and very thick so with we can only imagine that during WW2 this Bridge and line was very important - The line travels into Wroclaw formally the city in German times was called Breslau. (complete with modern graffiti) Further to the right of this turret and about 30 yards or so I found yet another bunker hidden in the embankment, this I presumed to be a soldiers guard bunker and further in the same direction some 3/4 of a mile away was a further two similar bunkers.
This image shows the track on the east side of the bridge. It is hard to say when this was cut and left like this but the local seem to think it was done not so shortly after the Russians occupied this part of Poland (Formerly Germany of course pre WW2) and thus taking Poland into the USSR grasp. It is worth noting that the track it self has been cut many times throughout the whole length of the bridge with parts of the sleepers being removed to. However, the sleepers, considering their age are in very good condition.
It has to be said that at all times the investigative team (Freelance Reporters) take all precautions when viewing such structures as safety must be first priority - we do not wish any person viewing these blogs to take such explorations upon themselves as it can be very dangerous particularly being high above the ground and with real trains passing by on a main line.
The location of this bridge in West Wroclaw, Poland and was visited several times in 2018 and 2019
All of the images contained within these blogs are copyright protected
A Sony Xperia Mobile Phone was used to shoot these images
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