Weidendammer Bridge

It is notable for its ornate wrought iron railings, lanterns, and Imperial eagles.

[1] In 1685, a wooden drawbridge was built on the site in the course of the creation under Elector Frederick William I of Hohenzollern of a new western suburb of the city, Dorotheenstadt.

Named after nearby willow (Weiden) trees on the riverbank, it was demolished for a cast iron construction erected in 1824, one of the first in Central Europe.

Too small after the exponential population growth of Berlin as the capital of the German Empire, it was again replaced by the current bridge built between 1895 and 1896.

On the night of 1 May 1945, a Tiger tank from the 11th SS Panzergrenadier Division Nordland spearheaded an attempt to storm the bridge to allow hundreds of German soldiers and civilians to escape across it.

Padlocks engraved with the names of lovers, locked onto the wrought-iron railings of the Weidendammer bridge
The bridge in 1881, in the background the New Synagogue
Weidendammer Bridge, 1897
Wrought iron imperial eagle on the Weidendammer Bridge