German Bridge That Is For Boats-Truth!
Summary of eRumor:
The email includes a picture of what appears to be a bridge for boats! It says the bridge is over the River Elbe and joins the former East and West Germany, part of a unification project.
The Truth:
The bridge is known as the Magdeburg Water Bridge and provides a link between two German shipping canals, the Elbe-Havel canal and the Mittellandkanal.
It’s the longest and largest boat bridge in the world.
Connecting the two important canals has been envisioned since the early part of the last century and construction was actually begun in the 1930’s but was hindered by two world wars and then the Cold War that split Germany into the East and the West.
The bridge is a kilometer long and cost more than $500 million Euros.
Without the bridge commercial traffic was dependent on the Elbe river, which was not reliable throughout the year because of occasions of low water levels, and which sometimes stranded boats and barges.