Being the only bridge that crossed the Streamlined River, the Voorlem-Dokmuiden Road Bridge is a major transportation artery that links both the North and South Shores together. Being a small two-lane road, as of 1953, discussions regarding an expansion have since been underway. It is time, that we reflect upon the history of this long, overlooked bridge.
The First Bridge
Long before the bridge was constructed in the 1920s, the only way to travel between Dokmuiden and Voorlem was to either take a precarious ferry (which often sank in winter storms), ride the new train at expensive prices, or to travel far up-river as a bypass. This, for many, simply would not do. The earliest plans for a bridge dated back to the 1600s, when medieval engineers sought to construct an arch bridge across the flowing waters of the Streamlined River. However, merchants and ferry-operators objected to the bridge's construction, as both businesses relied heavily on the river. Thus far, most plans have dried up. Eventually, the first bridge attempting to cross the river was built in 1789 by a French engineer named Jacques Martoise.
His plans called for a stone arch bridge that would cross the river between Voorlem and Container's Sandbar, before eventually becoming a massive draw-bridge to allow for Ships to travel through. Construction began in early spring of 1789. By 1791 the stone arch section was completed, however issues began occuring when construction on the draw-bridge had commenced.
Although his plans were revolutionary, the scale was simply unprecedented. Furthermore, a series of ferry and ship companies opposed to the construction of the bridge: even to the point that they protested by having ships block the construction crews from laying down the wood needed for the drawbridge. It all came crashing down in 1792 when a notoriously bad storm from the Channel and North Sea brought in massive waves, which washed into the tides of the river.
The stone-arches (which were poorly supported due to financial constraints), came tumbling down. With the collapse of the bridge, came an end to the first bridge ever to attempt to cross.
A New Century
For the next eight decades, attempts to cross the river had dwindled. It wasn't until in the midst of the Victorian Age that it would be attempted again. An English engineer named Atlas Holsbury vowed that he would bridge the vital gap for standard traffic. Folklore states that he was inspired to take on such a monumental task, after he oversaw a railroad, push an elderly woman off the train, due to her not paying the fare by accident.
After consulting many potential designs for a bridge, he settled on an design similar to that of the Yaleville Bridge. He decided to expand upon the Lenticular Truss styled Bridge, by making some more stability advancements upon the design. He implemented a Pratt-Truss style into the Lenticular Design and included a high section of a braced arch bridge over the area where the merchant ships would cross.
Furthermore, he decided to reinforce the foundation with more masonry to prevent waves from possibly collapsing the bridge. He founded a new company, known as the Streamlined Construction & Bridge Company in 1886, and acquired construction rights for the new bridge. With investors, he had raised enough money to begin work in the Summer of 1886. Work on the bridge was slow at first, as Atlas had emphasized the need for safety, and a precise hold on the foundations in order to prevent collapse due to winter storms.
The waterway sections were trick, as they needed to be kept open. The Navy decided to block off one section of the Streamlined River between Container's Sandbar and the Voorlem Shore, in order to help aid the bridge construction. The water here was relatively shallow, so it would not be much of a loss. When work reached the section of waterway between Dokmuiden and Container's Sandbar, it was decided that they would keep working although the waterway was open. The high-section, which would soar a couple meters above the clearance of the sailing ships at the time, would be made of a braced arch bridge.
Work would continue for the next five years; prolonged due to some issues involving minor collapses due to implementations of ideas by the Dutch Government. In 1891, the bridge would open to much fanfare! An approximate of forty people died during the bridge's construction. A statue lies on the foot of the old approach to the bridge. The new bridge featured large ornamentations on each end of the bridge, a large deck of imported redwood—a decision implemented due to its resistance to weathering—and a wide deck for anticipation of more travel.
Initially, there were proposals to run trams on the bridge between Dokmuiden and Voorlem by the Aldrecht Tramway Company, however the plans fell through due to large railway competition. The first carriages to roll across the bridge was by the royal family, and then the engineers, and some workers on the bridge. It was immediately an instant success, much to the dismay of the larger railway companies. It's success is credited also due to the low toll of the bridge, which helped the Streamlined Construction & Bridge Company make up some lost revenue.
Between the thirty-year period of when the bridge was opened, as well as the second bridge, more than a couple million people travelled over the Streamlined River Bridge as it was also among one of the first to be connected to the paved road network. By the 1920s, the bridge was holding up well. Atlas Holsbury intentionally designed the bridge to be wide-enough to anticipate more traffic, or unbeknownst to him, designed for the advent of the automobile.
Replacements & No-Renovations
Although the bridge had endured, prior to the 1920s, it was not suited for the large quantity of people that were going to use it. The bridge, which was only wide enough to carry two lanes of traffic on each side, was becoming more and more worn down by the new load. Furthermore, what was once used for slow-paced horse traffic had been converted into a relatively high-speed route when the Dokmuiden-Zand Highway was paved.
Although the bridge was designed in anticipation of increased traffic, it was not engineered to accommodate automotive transport, let alone at higher speeds. The large curve in the bridge at Container's Sandbar would be the cause of many accidents. Various lawsuits were filed by victims against the construction company, and the two cities.
Protests by the Mothers League on the bridge were quite frequent too, after newspapers spread propaganda that anyone who drove on the bridge would perish. Hundreds clustered in front of the Dokmuiden City Hall to protest the bridge, whilst other more extreme protestors blocked the flow of traffic. Eventually, after a decade of protesting and legal court battles, the people won. Proposals that were somewhat grand and somewhat outrageous were immediately submitted by aspiring engineers to the City Hall.
After a compromise with the citizens, in 1927 a plan by a certain Noah Aikens was submitted for a newer bridge to act as a diversion for traffic on the bridge. Although many people opposed the plan, it was accepted in 1929 by the 'Royal' Engineers after a lengthy evaluation.
The new bridge would be cheaper than the other similar proposals. It would simply be a Pratt-Through Truss with a Vertical-Lift on the navigation channel section. Unknowingly, Noah Aikens would eventually become a source of hate for the region.
A New Bridge
Construction began in 1930, albeit at a slow pace, as the world was on edge after America had plunged deep into an economic crisis. Aikens had many assets centralized in America. This led him to lose a significant portion of his life’s savings at the onset of the Great Depression. However, because he had also centralized some of his financial assets in Switzerland, which had saved him from financial bankruptcy, as he still had some money left over. As Aikens struggled to pay for the construction, the pace of the bridge’s construction slowed during this time.
However, after some shady backdoor deals he acquired approximately two million Gulden to finish the project. Moving his family into a new cottage situated next to the bridge, he oversaw construction daily as his company moved forward. Using reinforced steel for his bridge abutments, and a cross-deck of steel cables and beams. His company had proposed numerous times to cut costs by cutting down on safety redundancies (like extra masonry and rebar for the concrete abutments), however he had a tendency to fire anyone who proposed such ideas.
He had taken one design into account, and that was making the bridge lower to the surface. Everyday, spectators would stand on the original bridge and watch the slow construction process, as ships with cranes deliver steel on the spot. There were a tad bit of protests that objected to the new bridge construction as they reasoned that rebuilding the original bridge would be much easier on the people and the ship companies. However, Aikens and the local government ignored them, and construction resumed.
Taking over three years to construct the bridge on account of how many times large waves from the channel had washed out a lot of abutments, the bridge was opened approximately one thousand gulden over-budget in September of 1933. The little bridge was now in operation.
Objections
When the new bridge opened, it was immediately utilized to it's fullest extent. A rule stated that all automobiles that were utilized for freight transport were required to use the newer bridge, instead of the original one. Standard passenger-carrying cars however were still permitted to use the bridge, whilst bus services were required to use the other.
This relieved a lot of traffic which had occurred on the original bridge, and gave way to a much faster travel-time across the bridge. At this time, it was also not uncommon to still see horse-buggies running across the bridge! However, the new bridge was not opened without some local opposition. Some still reasoned that rebuilding sections of the original bridge was a better alternative to constructing an entirely new bridge, whilst some reasoned that the new bridge could've at least been wider.
One subject everyone seemed to agree on though, was the fact that the new bridge was ugly. When compared to it's older counterpart, it's quite frankly a boring mess of repeated ironwork and dull colors. The use of a dark gray paint scheme on the bridge, along with the decision not to construct a high bridge, meant that the road bridge was close to the water level and constantly exposed to the elements.
Commonly, the bridge found its paint chipping away; even after a couple months of operation. Engineer Noah Aikens was "praised" for constructing the worst bridge in the region, some argued it was the worst bridge in the country. Furthermore, shipping and ferry companies had opposed the bridge because of its vertical lift span allowing boats to travel through, was simply too small and close to the shore. Although there was some significant dredging done by Royal Engineers to allow for ship travel to still maneuver around, the height of the vertical-lift span was simply too low. Many merchant-companies had found that their boats were obsolete, and unable to travel and to the English Channel, prohibiting trade opportunities.
Thus they demanded a change.
War & Deterioration
Their cries were cut short, as in 1939 war was declared on the Axis Powers. The bridge remained largely undefended, as it was generally assumed that the axis would not push into the Netherlands. The region felt a sense of ease, knowing this. However, they were wrong, and on the 10th of May, 1940, the Axis pushed into the Netherlands.
As an attempt to delay the invasion, the retreating Dutch Army rigged both of the bridges with explosives. This would not be used however, as on the 15th of May, the King surrendered the country. Not everyone agreed to this surrender however; and it was the people of Streamlined who took up the mantle of resistance. Beginning in 1941, resistance members would often target the bridge as it saw a high use of traffic between the two major cities. Knowing that Dokmuiden Harbor was an essential port to the schemes of the new Empire, it was often planned for the twin bridges, and the rail-bridge to be blown up in a spectacular feat of defiance.
This didn't come to be however, as it was realized that the Empire could use other bridges further up-stream, and that the bridge collapse would barely hinder ship-traffic on the river. Instead, they targeted shipments of cargo on the bridge. Caravans of military jeeps and personnel were bombed and shot at repeatedly. Soldiers had to be stationed, and checkpoints installed on each end of the twin bridges, as a safety precaution against the resistance.
Little maintenance was done on the bridges, as most materials needed to retrofit the aging structures were needed for the war. Often or not, failing structural beams were temporarily braced with crude steel, or hand-hewn planks of wood.
Floris "Klok" Getik-Vanderbegan recalls his time on the original bridge, in 1943:
"Well... at the time we had to take the bus to get to family in Dokmuiden... and boy was that a time. Riding across the bridge was... interesting to say the least. I was about six but I still recall that day..."
"As soon as the bus got onto the bridge, you could hear those wooden deck-boards creaking under the weight of an omnibus. The... steel beams made a sort of ringing noise from all the wind passing in-between, and I remember I asked my mama if we were going to fall over... The wind made a howling sound, and all on the bridge you could look down and see the river before... my sister however was quite pleased as she could see the entire valley and coast from here..."
"There was still manure on the deck, as most people couldn't afford to use their automobiles at a time of rationing; hell we even passed by the milk-man: Mr O'Daniels." "When you got to the steel arch, I could look up and see the rustiness of the metal... we even got a few bits of chipped paint on our hair while we looked out of the window! From the top, my that salty sea-air refreshed the sweaty damp-ness of the omnibus... Nonetheless... you could tell it was decaying but boy, it was a wonderous time..."
The bridges were decaying, and only one would survive.
Loss & Collapse
Everyone lost something, or someone, in the Day of Bloodshed. The day Voorlem and Dokmuiden defied their occupiers, was a day no one would forget. Planned in advance for a year or so, the Day of Bloodshed was going to be a resistance like no other.
Although for the past three years, resistance was relatively quiet throughout the country, the organization that operated within the two cities had a singular policy: "Make noise." So they did. With help from the Royal Air Force of Britain, and the Free French (who believed that if the Netherlands was liberated, then the rest of France would be), they plotted their plan. How the bridges come into this story? They were the event that started the Day of Bloodshed.
In the middle of the night, Lena Getik and Christophe Vanderbegan, and a dozen others, laced the bottom of the original bridge with explosives, capable of bringing down the entire bridge. Another team did the same on the other side of the bridge. Meanwhile, at the newer bridge, five ordinary looking trucks rolled up. They were stopped just before the checkpoint; guarded by Axis soldiers. Little did the soldiers know, these trucks were filled with weapons, sandbags, and angry dutch citizens. They waited, for precisely one in the morning.
The events that followed would be forever etched in the memories of the residents of Voorlem and Dokmuiden. As the clockwork bell tolled, large explosions ensued. The original bridge, amidst a cloud of smoke, ash, and rubble, collapsed into the channel of the Streamlined River. Gunfire erupted on the second bridge as men and women, hardened by anger, rose to reclaim their country. In an instant, a bridge that had once been the pride of these communities lay submerged at the bottom of the river.
Plans To Cross
Somehow, throughout the war, the tiny bridge survived. Although it was the target of numerous raids, it stood proud and tall. Its older brother however, still sat at the bottom of the river. The collapse of the bridge disrupted sea traffic for almost a year, as the Axis had to import labour to clear up the bridge wreckage and debris from the harbor. When the war ended, amidst the need to reconstruct some valuable infrastructure, came the Aiken Plan. Conjured by a man called Noah Aikens, who was the engineer to construct the second bridge. Aikens had announced that he had a plan to reconstruct a better bridge for the twin cities.
It was ambitious. Utilising multiple massive V-Laced Trusses, and a Cantilever Span, it would've had three lanes on each side for efficient travel. Aiken had decided to use his remaining fortune to attempt to construct this new bridge, as he wanted to associate his name with a better looking bridge. Construction began in March of 1948, with steel being manufactured by the Schnieder Corporation. Concrete abutments for the grand scheme began to take shape as two work crews on each side of the river started the bridge’s construction.
Meanwhile, the younger 1930s bridge was facing struggle. The small two-lane bridge was plagued with traffic jams that lasted for hours. Some manufacturers opted for the superior railway infrastructure, as it sometimes took up to three hours to cross the river on the bridge. Despite these challenges, construction continued. However, the Aiken Engineering Firm was beginning to face economic difficulties. The war had left the company in ruins, as the Axis powers had prohibited their operations for the duration of the conflict. Investments were also dwindling, as more funds were being allocated to repair further infrastructure like railways, rather than new road projects.
Noah Aikens, now in his thirties, was anxiously waiting to see if the company would survive past 1947.
Shattered Dreams
The financial strain was overwhelming. As the foundations were being set and the initial sections of the deck began to take form in late November 1947, construction crews received orders to temporarily suspend their work. Aikens was compelled to halt construction due to the significant drain on the company’s reserve savings. The loans that the company had secured from banks were becoming increasingly challenging to repay.
Furthermore, during this period, the Aikens Engineering Firm found few willing to contract them due to their deteriorating public record. Despite the firm’s extensive efforts to repair the Streamlined region in the two years following the war, their work went unrewarded. While many people eagerly anticipated a new bridge, no one was willing to fund it. This lack of financial support ultimately led to the company’s collapse in 1948.
Sections of the company had decided to reorganize, with Noah Aikens deciding to form Mikado Engineering, a new company to determine how to repair railway and road related infrastructure. After numerous court hearings, the Aikens Engineering Firm was officially dissolved in April of 1948, and with it, all hopes of a new bridge.
And so that brings us to modern day.
As producers increasingly opt for the road over the train, traffic on the new road bridge has seen a significant increase. Noah Aikens continues to reside next to his creation, in a quaint cottage with a view of the river. Numerous ambitious firms have proposed plans to construct a new pre-fabricated concrete bridge, but these plans often fail to materialize.
The existing bridge, which evokes both affection and disdain, is desperately in need of replacement. As the volume of ship and road traffic on the Streamlined River escalates, the demand for a larger, more modern bridge becomes more pressing. The old bridge deck of the planned bridge has long since disappeared, but the concrete foundations persist. Twisted steel fragments continue to surface among the debris in the Streamlined River, and remnants of the first bridge still lie submerged deep beneath the water.
The days of the small bridge are numbered. It stands as a testament to promises both fulfilled and broken. Perhaps one day, we will look back on it as a relic of the past. But until that day comes, our only option is to endure and voice our complaints.