Amtmands Hoppes Bro

Facts

An artistic masterpiece

By Steffen Elmer Jørgensen, Arkivar, seniorforsker, Ph.D. (18 stories)

The reinforced concrete bridge at Langå was designed and built by the firm of Christiani & Nielsen for the sum of 13,645 Danish kroner. Christiani & Nielsen was a pioneer of reinforced concrete structures. The bridge was commissioned by Randers County Council to connect the town with the eastern section of the parish. To accommodate barges on the Gudenå river, the bridge clearance over the water was 4.95 metres. The bridge, which has three spans, is 40 metres long and 4.5 metres wide. The span was not cast as a single section, but as multiple narrow parallel spans. This made the bridge appear lighter without any loss of carrying capacity.

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Concrete beauties

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Story written by Steffen Elmer Jørgensen

Time / Periode 1905

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Reinforced concrete is rarely associated with superlative architecture. But in the early 1900s, Christiani & Nielsen was a world-class engineering firm, renowned for numerous artistic masterpieces in the shape of small ferro-concrete bridges. The bridge called Amtmand Hoppes Bro in the railway town of Langå, south of Renders, is perhaps the finest of them all. Randers County Council wanted a wooden bridge, but Rudolph Christiani, an expert on concrete, persuaded the council to use the new reinforced concrete. And that in spite of the prevailing scepticism about its carrying capacity. Unusually, the bridge took its name from a living person – and a non-royal – Councillor Hoppe. Hoppe was the chairman of the county council and thus responsible for the bridge project. In 1965, a new, wider bridge was built, to take heavy goods vehicles. Fortunately the old bridge was made a listed monument.