Bridges and footbridges in Gubin - Footbridge to the Theater Island

Tourist attractions

Image: Footbridge to the Theater Island, Gubin

Description

The foot bridge to the Theatre Island - in its original form built in a similar style to the Virgin’s Bridge 45 metres to the north. This stone structure connected the City Theatre, the Shooting Fraternity House, the park and the shooting range to the rest of the city and replaced a smaller wooden bridge. Like most of Guben's bridges, it was demolished in 1945. It was only rebuilt in 1998 and since then the Theatre Island can be reached via a footbridge of concrete and steel construction with a wooden balustrade

Historical background

For centuries, in Guben, as in other European cities, the bridges were made primarily of wood. Wooden bridge structures were popular mainly due to their low construction cost, high availability of material, speed, and ease of construction as well as low weight. Unfortunately, they also had their disadvantages, which were particularly noticeable in the urbanized area - wooden bridges were very susceptible to the effects of weather conditions, they were significantly and often completely damaged during floods and fires, thus leading to high maintenance costs. In addition, due to the low strength of the material, and thus a small span and load-bearing capacity (several meters for beam structures, about 40 meters for lattice structures), along with the increasing traffic intensity, they could not gradually fulfill their communication function.
Along with the popularization of the construction of massive structures made of reinforced concrete, city authorities began to gradually rebuild bridge structures. In Guben, almost all bridges on the Nysa, Lubsza, Egelneiße and Schwarzes Fließ were built and modernized in this way. A significant part of the existing bridges was destroyed at the very end of World War II by the retreating German troops. Many were not rebuilt - this group includes the Northern Bridge from 1925, which is the largest structure of this type in pre-war Guben.