Iron bridges in Zrenjanin

Zrenjanin, Mali most preko Begeja

The iron bridges in Zrenjanin are certainly famous, but do you know everything about them?

Below you will read interesting facts about iron bridges and everything that makes them so special.

Large railway bridge

You have all probably seen and heard about the Great Railway Bridge, which was primarily built for the needs of the Zrenjanin – Secanj railway in the period between 1887 and 1891. From Sečanj, one part of the railway was extended towards Žombolje, and the other towards Vršac. At that time, the bridge was built by the German company Süddeutsche Brückenbau-AG (today Hörmann Automotive).

As time passed, and the population density increased, the bridge could no longer withstand the excessive load because, among other things, the locomotives and wagons were getting heavier and heavier. Since this bridge was very important for the flow of traffic, they decided to make a reconstruction of the existing bridge and strengthen its structure with parts that were ordered from Germany. The original plan for the reconstruction was in 1936, but later it was decided to build a new bridge, which was officially opened on June 1, 1937.

The new bridge was also made of iron with a wooden floor, but it could withstand a load of up to 18 tons, unlike the previous one, which could withstand a load of up to only 9 tons. At that time, the Smederevo company Sartid organized technical works around the construction of the bridge, and the complete iron instruction was built by the wagon factory from Slavonski Brod.

This bridge exists to this day and there is a pedestrian path next to the railway, but the fact is that reconstruction is necessary.

The Little Bridge or the Bridge of Franz Joseph, Vuk Karadzic

Before the Small Bridge, in its place, there was a wooden drawbridge that served to connect the city center, Little America and Budzak. However, it was not until the beginning of 1900 that they replaced it with an iron one. More precisely, in 1903, projects for the construction of bridges arose from the Ministry of Trade, which were approved by the city authorities, and the royal engineer Gamboš Mihalj was elected supervisor and controller of construction. The entire construction of the bridge was completed by the iron factory of the state railway in Resice, while the access roads were operated by the Hungarian company Rauh & Fekete. This same year, construction officially began, and the system for raising the work was released at the end of the following year, when the bridge was completed.

What you probably didn’t know is that the construction of the Small Bridge was significantly more expensive than the construction of the Big Bridge due to the complexity of the construction, which was much more complicated to build than the Big Bridge, but also due to the aesthetic moment, unlike the Big Bridge.

The small bridge is characterized by a regular arched construction in the form of a section of a circle. To date, several reconstructions have been carried out, and the last major one was carried out 20 years ago.

The history of Zrenjanin is much more interesting than you expected, isn’t it? Follow Apartments Zrenjanin because a lot of interesting texts and information about this small, but historically rich, town awaits you.

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