August 20, 2009; De Magere Brug (The Skinny Bridge), Amstel River, Amsterdam @ 16.00
It was a tropically hot summer day with temperatures close to 30C (86F) so I headed to one of my favorite areas to check out the action on the water around a beautiful drawbridge called De Magere Brug (The Skinny Bridge) on the Amstel River.
Although the city has about 1,280 bridges this is not only my favorite, but is the favorite of many people including tourists and is probably the most photographed bridge in the city.
On a nice summer day there are plenty of recreational boaters around. In addition, there is a lot of commercial river shipping that uses the Amstel River traversing through Amsterdam on their comings and goings so the bridge is sometimes opened every 20 - 30 minutes. In addition, the banks of the river have lots of houseboats and recreational boats moored by the houseboats.
The original Magere Brug was built in 1691. And as narrow as it is
today, back then it really earned its name. It was so narrow that 2
pedestrians could hardly pass each other while crossing it. That
original bridge lasted almost 200 years until it had to be replaced in
1871. That one only lasted about 60 years and was again replaced in
1934. The proposed design called for a steel and stone bridge but the
city decided to build a wooden replica of the previous bridge,
which was pretty much a wooden replica of the original although each
bridge became successively wider.
The bridge was opened by
hand for 300 years and finally in 1994 a motorized mechanism was
installed to open and close it. The current bridge was closed to cars in 2003.
I returned later that evening to get some pictures of the bridge at night when it is lit with about 1200 small lights.
If you want check out the entire album of pictures I made of life on and around De Magere Brug on the Amstel River. In some of the pictures you will see a similar bridge which is the next one ships have to pass on their way into Amsterdam.
A river tanker passing under the next bridge after De Magere Brug on its way into Amsterdam. You see it has to make a 90 degree turn to continue on its way.
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