The Langå bridge

Facts

Blown-up bridge

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

Since the 1860s, the small town of Langå has been an important railway junction. This was where the secondary railway line to Viborg, Skive, Struer and Holstebro was to branch off from the main line from Fredericia to Aalborg. Work on the branch line started in 1861 while the Aarhus-Randers main line was still under construction. The river Gudenå passes Langå, and a modern iron bridge had to be built across this river. The bridge consisted of prefabricated sheet iron boxes bolted to a foundation of steel girders. This bridge was blown up by Prussian troops in 1864. In that same year, a new bridge was built from modular sections by Thomas Brassey, the famed British contractor and manufacturer. This bridge is still in existence.

Partly a public place

Selected entry

A bridge as revenge for locomotives

Story written by Steffen Elmer Jørgensen

Time / Periode 1862 1864

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During the Second Schleswig War of 1864, Prussian troops forced their way up into North Jutland. The Danish forces had acquired the trains of the Jutland-Funen Railway company for transporting soldiers. The troops were taken to Skive, where critical parts were removed from the locomotives to put them out of action. From his headquarters in Aarhus, the Prussian commander-in-chief demanded the release of the locomotives. When this was refused, the Langå bridge was blown up as a punishment. The bridge was soon rebuilt after the war and was in operation until 1952. Later, two parallel lattice-girder bridges were built for heavy goods trains. These new bridges were blown up by Danish saboteurs in November 1943, while the old, 1864 bridge survived unscathed.