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Szegedin Railroad Bridge

The Railroad Bridge Szegedin over the Theiß river in Szeged (Hungarian: Szegedi vasúti Tisza-híd) was the largest bridge on rail line connecting Budapest, Szeged, and Temesvár, which, at the time of construction, belonged to Hungary.

Built between 1857 and 1858, the double-tracked wrought iron arch bridge was 439.26 meters long. It had eight arch sections, with spans of 41.42 meters, and was 106.5 meters off the ground at the banks. Every arch consisted of four parallel ribs, connected by horizontal and diagonal beams. The roadbed was supported by vertical and diagonal supports.

Each pier supports two cast iron tubes with diameters of 3 meters, serving as caissons. As the pipes sank into the riverbed, additional pipe segments were screwed into the top, until at a certain depth the pipes were filled with concrete.

The bridge pieces were built between 1857 and 1858 by the French entrepreneur Ernest Goüin (who later funded the construction of the "Société de Construction des Batignolles", and finally the Spie Batignolles), and were carried by rail from Paris to Szeged, and assembled there. Ernet Goüin & Cie first completed the Asnières railroad bridge in Paris in 1852; the first wrought iron bridge in France. The Szeged railroad bridge was among the most advanced of its time. It was the first large railroad bridge in Hungary, It was also the first bridge in Hungary to be built using Caissons, and the first riveted bridge in Hungary.

After the First World War, Temesvár, in the Treaty of Trianon in 1920, become part of Romania, and was renamed to Timișoara.

Due to the advent of heavier trains and a drop in traffic across the bridge, only one track was used following the war, and the second track was dismantled.

In the Second World War the bridge was used to supply German troops in Romania, and to ship oil back to Germany. In 1944 it was bombed by allied forces, and during their retreat from Romania, the German army destroyed what remained of the bridge.

Since the war, no reconstruction has been attempted. The remaining piers in the river obstructed ship traffic, and were consequently removed. At present, the abutments are all that remain of the bridge.

After both Hungary and Romania were accepted into the EU, revival of the line was considered, however a reconstruction of the original bridge is unlikely to proceed due to the narrow arch radius of the original design.