River Over A River - A Water Bridge On River

Have you ever seen a river on river or a water bridge over a river? Even after you see it, it is still hard to believe because of it's amazing facts about engineering structure.

It's all about the incredible Magdeburg Water Bridge in Germany. The Magdeburg Water Bridge is a navigable aqueduct in Germany that connects the Elbe-Havel Canal to the Mittelland Canal and allows ships to cross over the Elbe River At 918 meters, it is the longest navigable aqueduct in the world. This is a channel bridge over the River Elbe and joins the former East and West Germany as part of the unification project.

The Elbe-Havel and Mittelland canals had previously met near Magdeburg but on opposite sides of the Elbe. Ships moving between the two had to make a 12 kilometer detour, descending from the Mittelland canal through the Rothensee boat lift into the Elbe, then sailing downstream on the river, before entering the Elbe-Havel Canal through Niegripp lock. Low water levels in the Elbe often prevented fully laden canal barges from making this crossing, requiring time consuming off-loading of cargo.

Construction of the water bridge was started as early as in the 1930 but due to the World War 2 and subsequent division of Germany the work remained suspended till 1997. The aqueduct was finally completed and opened to the public in 2003. It was finally completed and opened to the public in 2003.