Hi there,
I'm kinda new here, hope my post is okay.
So here is the deal: I work as a "rural policeman" in a small municipality near Charleroi in Belgium. Few years ago, some old folks explained to me that there was a bridge left by nazi's somewhere in the wood. Yesterday, during my patrol someplace i've never been before, I've stumble upon what could be the (in)famous bridge!
here's some pics:
http://hpics.li/82e0be9 http://hpics.li/d26bff3
I was kinda excited by that nazi bridge but after some research I think it could be more of a Bailey bridge left by the Allied troops than Nazi one.
What is really strange to me is that, at the bottom of the concrete the bridge rest upon, there is three emblem shape hole, like if someone stole what could have been there...
It doesn't seems logic to me that US or Canadian engineer corps would took the time to carve their emblem in the concrete during a war campaign.
Hope someone with WWII history knowledge could help me with this one.
That doesn't look like a Bailey Bridge to me -- the lower part is made of riveted steel plates, and Allied Bailey Bridges were almost always made entirely with an open-truss framework that extended above the road surface, but not usually very far below the roadbed unless there were intermediate pylons, which appear to be absent.
Can you take a photograph from underneath looking up?
Not a proper historical source, but here's a page with some pictures of baliey bridge varients: http://www.thinkdefence.co.uk/2012/01/uk-military-bridging-equipment-the-bailey-bridge/
The large straight-line gusset plate suggests this bridge was intended as a permanent construction for of moderate vehicular traffic, not the sort of the think I would think of military engineers as building.
Disclaimer: I am not a civil engineer.
On further thought, the design rather reminds me of small railroad bridges built in the United State during the 1920s and 1930s.
Do you know if there used to be a railroad right-of-way that used this bridge?
It looks as if the bridge has room for rail tracks (where there is no metal plating). You can check to see if the width is approximately 1.435 meters, the standard rail gauge, or 1 meter, metre gauge. As you probably know the Charleroi area has a lot of old industry that in the past required rail links, so it might be an old bridge of a disappeared industrial rail connection. Charleroi and the whole Hainaut also had an extensive Vicinal network that sometimes included bridges, tunnels, etc. Other clues of that might be visible on a satellite image (linear tree lines, swerving bike paths (RAVEL), etc.).
If you post the coördinates I could take a look at some books to see if there was a rail line situated at that spot. You could also contact your local history association or an organisation involved in transport history (for example ASVi or PFT-TSP).