Four Day Marches : bridge celebration

During the Four Days Marches the Waalbrug is playing
a big part. We cross it on several occasions during the
Marches. This year the bridge is 75 years old and has
experienced quite a lot in its lifetime.



The Waalbrug is an arch bridge over the Waal River
in Nijmegen, Gelderland, Netherlands. The full length
of the Waalbrug is 604 metres (1,982 ft), and in the
middle of the arch it is about 65 metres (213 ft) high.
The largest arch is 244.1 metres (801 ft) long and at
the time of construction was the longest arch in Europe.



The bridge was opened on 16 June 1936 by Queen
Wilhelmina of the Netherlands in front of
200.000 people.



At the start of the Second World War the
Dutch combat engineering units blew up the bridge
to stop the German army's advance. During the
occupation the Germans restored the bridge and
from 1943 it was in use for traffic again. In 1944 the
Germans planned to blow up the bridge again but a
Rover Scout and member of the Dutch Resistance,
managed to prevent this. On 20 September 1944,
the bridge was conquered by allied forces.



The bridge was coloured green until 1980, these days it is white.

The Waalbrug can be found in the movie A Bridge Too Far and
the computer game Medal of Honor: Frontline.