Bridge over Polhem's last lock - Trollhättan, Västra Götalands Län, Sweden - Stone Bridges on Waymarking.com

The 16m long, 6m wide and around 8m high arched bridge over Christian Polhem's unfinished lock was built in 1889. The bridge leads on the road Landsbersliden with the Oscarsbron to the west and to the Åkersbergsvägen to the east.

Around 1740, Christian Polhem was commissioned to enable shipping on the Götaälv river to Lake Vänern. The plans he drew up included several locks near Lilla Edet and Trollhättan. In Trollhättan, three locks were supposed to bypass the approximately 30m high waterfall. The construction of the middle lock began in 1747, in which a height difference of almost 15.4m was to be overcome.

Unfortunately, for a 16m wooden gate, the water pressure at the bottom is too high for the gates to last long. The rock also proved to be too hard for proper and rapid mining, so that only narrow ships could have passed through the locks. The work was therefore stopped in 1753 - two years after Polhem's death.

References:

• Polhems slussled, Swedish Wikipedia
• Entry "L1964:9058 Kanal" of the channel in the Riksantikvarieämbetet, it has a short description of the bridge (see section "Document och Bilder" → "Inventeringsbok: 1")

Physical Location (city, county, etc.): Trollhättan Road, Highway, Street, etc.: Landbergsliden Water or other terrain spanned: The unfinished waterway lock on the Kungälv river from Vänersborg to the cities of Kungälv and Gothenburg Architect/Builder: unknown Construction Date: 1889

Visit Instructions:
Post one photo of the bridge that is a different view from the one on the page and describe your visit. Add any additional information that you may have about this bridge. A GPSr photo is NOT required.

Recent Visits/Logs:

There are no logs for this waymark yet.