The Hef by Truckpowerr

About "The Hef"

by Truckpowerr

About the artwork

The Hef at a historic site,
The Koningshaven separates the North island from the Feijenoord district. The bridge sections of the Koningshaven bridge on both banks date from 1878. The middle section was originally a swing bridge. However, this was a major obstacle for shipping. In the narrow passage several ships got stuck, in 1918 the German ship Kandelfels sailed against the pillar. This last accident was the decisive factor in the construction of a lift bridge to replace the swing bridge.

The bridge was designed by engineer Pieter Joosting and opened on 31 October 1927. This bridge was the first of its kind in Western Europe. In 1928, Joris Ivens made an avant-garde film about De Hef entitled The Bridge. It was this film, among others, that made Ivens famous internationally. Arij de Boode and Pieter van Oudheusden wrote De Hef, biografie van een spoorbrug (The Bridge, 1985, with a foreword by Joris Ivens).

On 14 January 1933, Lou Vlasblom dived from the lift bridge. Two weeks later Jan Tabbernee jumped from a point six meters higher than Vlasblom. Tabbernee landed wrong and did not survive the dive.

On 14 May 1940, the bridge was severely damaged during the bombing of Rotterdam. To make train traffic possible again, it was one of the first engineering structures in the destroyed city to be repaired.

On May 10, 1978 the lift bridge was collided by the Nedlloyd Bahrein during tow from the shipyard Van der Giessen-de Noord, where the ship was built, to Wilton-Fije