engineering

Holzbrücke Rapperswil-Hurden

Holzbrücke Rapperswil-Hurden is a engineering topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Holzbrücke Rapperswil-Hurden rather than just read about it. In short: Holzbrücke Rapperswil-Hurden is a wooden pedestrian bridge between the city of Rapperswil and the village of Hurden crossing the Obersee (the upper part of Lake Zurich) in Switzerland. On 6 April 2001, the footbridge was opened.

Key takeaways

Holzbrücke Rapperswil-Hurden belongs to engineering; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Holzbrücke Rapperswil-Hurden to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Holzbrücke Rapperswil-Hurden from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Holzbrücke Rapperswil-Hurden is a wooden pedestrian bridge between the city of Rapperswil and the village of Hurden crossing the Obersee (the upper part of Lake Zurich) in Switzerland. On 6 April 2001, the footbridge was opened. With a length of 841 metres (2,759 ft) it is the longest wooden bridge in Switzerland. The wooden bridge has many predecessors. Wooden structures enabling lake crossings in the same area were already built thousands of years ago.

Geography The pedestrian bridge is located next to the so-called Seedamm, a stone and metal structure which includes two bridges. Like the Seedamm it connects Rapperswil in the canton of St. Gallen and Hurden in the canton of Schwyz. The water area between Rapperswil and Hurden is the narrowest and shallowest part of Lake Zurich. While the Seedamm separates the Obersee part from the main part of Lake Zurich, the pedestrian bridge crosses the Obersee.

Earlier wooden bridges

Neolithic and Bronze Age

The oldest remains of bridges or possibly wooden footpaths that were found at the archaeological site Hurden Rosshorn date back to the era of the Horgen culture. Many traces of Early, Middle and Late Bronze Age lake-crossing structures were discovered on the western side of the dam at the Hurden Rosshorn site. Several prehistoric pile dwelling settlements were built in the vicinity of the prehistoric lake crossings between Rapperswil and Hurden, most notably at Freienbach–Hurden Seefeld and Rapperswil-Jona–Technikum. The 17th century BC island settlement found at the Technikum site is especially interesting because it existed at the same time as some lake crossing structures found at the Hurden Rosshorn site. The archaeological sites Hurden Rosshorn, Hurden Seefeld and Technikum are all part of the UNESCO World Heritage Prehistoric pile dwellings around the Alps.

Hallstatt period, Roman era, Early Middle Ages Remains of wooden bridges from the Hallstatt period (647 BC), the Roman era (AD 165) and the Early Middle Ages (AD 741) were also found at the Hurden Rosshorn site. The Roman bridge was built under Emperor Marcus Aurelius (161–180). It was 6 metres (20 ft) wide.

The wooden bridge 1360–1878 Before a new bridge was opened in 1360, ferries were traveling between Rapperswil and Hurden. Between 1358 and 1360, Rudolf IV, Duke of Austria, built a wooden bridge across the lake. This bridge was used until 1878. It was approximately 1,450 metres (4,760 ft) long and 4 metres (13 ft) wide. 564 oak piles were installed for the bridge. The bridge was part of a pilgrimage route belonging to the Ways of St. James. It was used by pilgrims who wanted to get to the Einsiedeln Abbey or even to Santiago de Compostela. A bridge chapel called Heilig Hüsli, which still exists today, was built in 1551. The construction of the Seedamm began in 1875. When it was finished in 1878, the wooden bridge was demolished. The Heilig Hüsli chapel was then the only remaining structure. It stood isolated on a rock and was not accessible to pedestrians until the new wooden bridge was opened in 2001.

The new bridge (2001)

On 6 April 2001 the latest wooden footbridge was opened alongside the Seedamm. Piling started on 9 August 2000. The bridge was built within nine months. Like the 1360–1878 bridge the new wooden bridge links Rapperswil with the bridge chapel Heilig Hüsli. The bridge has a length of 841 metres (2,759 ft) and the footpath is 2.4 metres (7 ft 10 in) wide. The length of the 233 piles varies between 7 metres (23 ft) and 16 metres (52 ft), their diameter measuring between 36 centimetres (14 in) and 70 centimetres (28 in). 415 cubic metres (14,700 cu ft) of solid oak and 61 tonnes (60 long tons; 67 short tons) of steel components have been used.

Nature reserve The lake area near the Heilig Hüsli chapel and the small islands between the timber bridge and the dam are designated as a nature reserve. One of the small islands is an artificial gravel island. Hikers can observe a richly varied flora and fauna. The protected area is of the most important waterfowl breeding areas. For this reason, fishing from the wooden bridge is prohibited, as is swimming and mooring boats in the area.

See also Prehistoric pile dwellings around Zürichsee

Literature Beat Eberschweiler: Ur- und frühgeschichtliche Verkehrswege über den Zürichsee: Erste Ergebnisse aus den taucharchäologischen Untersuchungen beim Seedamm. In: Mitteilungen des Historischen Vereins des Kantons Schwyz, vol. 96, Schwyz 2004, p. 11–32 (online at e-periodica.ch). Hans Rathgeb: Brücken über den See. Hrsg. von der Arbeitsgemeinschaft Fussgänger-Holzsteg Rapperswil-Hurden, Rapperswil 2001. ISBN 3-9522511-1-9

References

External links

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Holzbrücke Rapperswil-Hurden

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Holzbrücke Rapperswil-Hurden claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In engineering, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Holzbrücke Rapperswil-Hurden before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Holzbrücke Rapperswil-Hurden ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Holzbrücke Rapperswil-Hurden

In research: Holzbrücke Rapperswil-Hurden appears in engineering research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Holzbrücke Rapperswil-Hurden in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Holzbrücke Rapperswil-Hurden is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 14th-century establishments in Switzerland, 21st-century architecture in Switzerland, 2nd-millennium BC establishments, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Holzbrücke Rapperswil-Hurden outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Holzbrücke Rapperswil-Hurden in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Holzbrücke Rapperswil-Hurden means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Holzbrücke Rapperswil-Hurden out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Holzbrücke Rapperswil-Hurden in simple terms?

Why does Holzbrücke Rapperswil-Hurden matter?

Because it connects several engineering ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Holzbrücke Rapperswil-Hurden?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Holzbrücke Rapperswil-Hurden.