Deutzer Gierponte

The ferry's origins lie in the Franco-Dutch War. Following the siege of Bonn, troops of the Holy Roman Empire under the imperial commander Raimondo Montecuccoli captured the Electoral Cologne city – allied with the French – in November 1673. The following year, the imperial general Margrave Hermann of Baden had the captured Bonn cable ferry brought to Cologne in order to cross the Rhine there.

He first offered the ferry to the Free Imperial City of Cologne. After the city declined, he sold the Gierponte to the Deutz ferry vassals for 1,300 thalers. In return, they committed to transporting imperial troops across the river at any time. The Cologne council, however, insisted that the ferry be moored on the left bank of the Rhine overnight.

According to the Deutz bridge regulations of 1690, the Gierponte had to run at least twice per hour. A single crossing took between 15 and 20 minutes and could carry up to 500 people and 100 horses. The ferry was operated by a bridge master and four additional crew members.

Between 3 March 1791 and 29 July 1793, operations ran along a different route: a dispute between the citizens of Cologne and Deutz meant that during this period the ship bridge ran between Poll on the right bank and a landing near the Bayenturm on Cologne territory.

The Deutzer Gierponte followed the Nijmegen model, which went back to the cable ferry developed by Hendrick Heuck and had already enabled Rhine crossings there from 1657. Two supporting ship hulls, almost 40 metres long (110 feet in the measurement of the time) and 4 metres wide, gave the structure its catamaran form. On top of them rested a load-bearing transport surface of nearly 320 square metres. Two crossed wooden struts provided reinforcement.

Around the middle of the 18th century, the ferry's guiding frame was upgraded, gaining a double crossbar, a strut framework, and lee boards.

After nearly 150 years of service, the era of the floating ferry came to a close. At the end of 1822, the Prussian administration built the Deutzer Schiffbrücke, a fixed, permanent pontoon bridge that replaced the Gierponte. The Deutzer Gierponte has not survived to the present day, so it can only be explored through its history.